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Has anyone figured out a reasonably safe way to ship a tuba to Europe from the USA for, say, under $500?

Fly with it! Or find someone that flies to Europe and takes it with him.

No joke! I bought a used sousaphone bell in the US and cheapest shipping to Switzerland would have been 700 $. (USPS I think!). I had the seller send it to a friend of mine, living in the States and the brought it with him when he last visited Switzerland. He packed it in a carton box with a lot of filling material and checked it in as bulky item. Did cost me 50 $.

Butch

I've taken all my tubas from US by sea.
There are several forwarders providing that service, usually only available for cargo >2m^3 and a registered companies.

The one I am using gives me a US forwarding address and shipping rates are more than fair,
in the area of $500 for a tuba, ~$650 for a BAT delivered to my door.
A substantial part of that fee is domestic shipping

Lectron wrote: >2m^3

I don't know what this means. Help?

Lectron wrote: The one I am using

Could you tell me the name?

Thanks!

talleyrand wrote:

Lectron wrote: >2m^3

I don't know what this means. Help?

Lectron wrote: The one I am using

Could you tell me the name?

Thanks!

2m^3 -> 2 cubic meters

The one I am using is called Jetcarrier, but specializes in US -> Scandinavia
They might have expanded thou

I've taken some by std. forwarding companies as well, like Itella, but using Jetcarrier
is for me probably the both fastest and cheapest..

Well...sea is never fast, but they have containers going regular once a week.
No extra wait as one often do when purchasing LCL (Less Than Container Load)
at a more standard company

Hmmm,cargo costs approx 670$( that's how much i paid Lufthansa cargo from LA to Skopje,Macedonia. That's all i can recommend.) the people comming in Europe option is lot cheaper,but make sure a experienced tuba player pack it!!!

I cannot tell the newest situation, but it used to be so that only Bax Global would insure instruments for full value. I have used them for a tuba, 2 sousaphones, a G baritone, and a harp. The latter after they had been integrated in this company:

http://www.dbschenkerusa.com/log-us-en/start/

Klaus

PS: An Bax was safer than this transpotation situation:

http://metro.co.uk/2014/01/14/elephant- ... a-4262425/

DB Schenker shipped my tuba from LA to Prague for 550 USD 2 weeks ago.