It really depends on the company you were dealing with. They almost certainly have someone stateside who are dealing with customs, picking up containers and un

It really depends on the company you were dealing with. They almost certainly have someone stateside who are dealing with customs, picking up containers and unpacking them. With enough volume, it's quite doable. Basically, for shipping by sea, weight is barely important. Volume is the most important thing. I forget how much it costs to ship a container (like those big containers you see at ship yards or on trains), but essentially it is little enough that cross atlantic/pacific is essentially free. If you have enough to fill up a container and you have someone who can do the paperwork on the other end, it is totally feasible. I shipped my bicycles from England to Japan on a partial palette. I can't even remember how much I paid... Maybe $100. And that's for a third party shipping company that came to my door, wrapped my bike boxes, put them on a palette and found space in an unfilled container. The hitch? I had to go to the docks in Japan, fill in the paperwork, do the customs inspection, etc. It took me a whole day. To have someone else do the work for me on that side would have cost $1000. If you can't receive large shipments, then they have you over a barrel and they will suck the money out of you. Probably there is a business opportunity there...