Shipping household items via USPS?

4 comments

1. This is a copy of your post for archive/search purposes.

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   **Shipping household items via USPS?**

   I’ll be moving to Japan via the spouse of Japanese national visa, and I’m trying to figure out the best way to send over my stuff.

   I don’t intend to bring any furniture, so it’ll just be a bunch of boxes. Yamato has an air-ship service, but I checked the USPS price calculator, and Yamato’s rates aren’t really *that* different than USPS’s. USPS would also grant me additional flexibility in terms of timing and quantity of boxes, so I was thinking of going that route, and just shipping them to my wife’s place before I arrive.

   I also checked Nippon Express, but they sadly no longer do any self-pack services, only the super expensive full-service-move-everything option. Evidently it was stopped during the pandemic and never restarted.

   My questions are:

   1. Has anyone ever done this, or something like it? How did it go?
   2. Will customs be a particularly big deal? I figured I would just make sure I don’t ship anything prohibited and provide a detailed manifest of each box contents
   3. Are there any other potential issues that I haven’t thought of?

   Thanks!

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2. I used Yamato self-pack, air ship. I had around 35 boxes (mixed small and large). They picked up, no problem at customs and perfect delivery. Having been here for a number of years now I can only say Japanese delivery services are far superior to those back home in the US.

3. Your biggest problems with USPS are going to be tracking and insurance.

   Tracking: USPS tracking stops at the US border. It *sometimes* will get updated to “Item is in customs in the destination country”, but not always. So it’s hard to figure out where your packages are and when they’ll be arriving.

   Insurance: Insurance on USPS international service is a nightmare. Making a claim involves a lot of “Go to your local post office and talk to them”, which obviously isn’t an option when you live on the other side of the world.

   For your own peace of mind, go with Yamato or another dedicated moving/courier service. Will it cost more? Yes. But you get what you pay for.

4. I actually only brought 5 pieces of luggage to Japan and they all came on the plane with me. Thanks American Airlines pre Great Recession.

   I have heard enough disasters with USPS shipments including my own orders from the US to say that no matter what, *don’t use USPS*.