Has anyone ever shipped a large vinyl collection from the US to Japan?

5 comments

1. Try a vinyl/records sub. Sounds less about it being Japan and more about shipping, packaging, storage.

2. Heads-up, there are strangely specific restrictions regarding the _music labels_ that you can and cannot bring in through a shipment. About 10% of my collection had to stay back in the US because they wouldn’t have made it through customs due to the label they were released on.

   The same restrictions don’t apply to personal effects carried with you, so I’ll have to gradually bring the remaining 10% back with me whenever I go back to visit.

3. Yes. But all my stuff came via container. You might consider that with this many boxes as well.

4. I don’t have a company recommendation, but you might want to be aware of the heat depending on when you are wanting to ship them.

5. Register for a FedEx account if you haven’t already and call Great Rates Hotline once you have your weight and dimensions. They sell FedEx unused space at a discount and will beat any carrier by a long shot.

   Edit: more info- FedEx will take care of everything. Just tell the Hotline people exactly what you’re shipping along with weight and dimensions and they’ll give you a quote and a quote number. If you’re happy with the quote you can lock it in right then or call back later with the quote number and lock it in for your preferred date. They’ll lock in the quote on your FedEx account. Then, bring your packages to your nearest FedEx location and ship it with the same info you gave to the hotline, bill it to your FedEx account and it’s off to its destination in Japan. They won’t treat your stuff with special care, so I would pack your vinyls in something very durable and pack it as if it was going to be dropped from 100 feet. As long as it’s packaged well, the handling shouldn’t matter. https://www.fedex.com/en-us/great-rates.html