Postal Letter

Can a person ship small items overseas via ocean freight?

I have an eBay site and occasionally get inquiries from overseas. Air shipping via FEDEX or UPS can be very expensive. I know that ocean shipping is very cheap but is ocean shipping for bulk or mass quantities of items?

Public Comments

1. Check with some of the LTL (Less Than Load) carriers such as Old Dominion on this. I know there is alot more paperwork involved (export shipping documents).
2. I would suggest using the post office, they still offer (I believe) ground int'l shipping, takes over a week to get to Europe. Be aware though that it will be delivered by another countries post office, some should not be used.
3. You can send any item however small in size & weight the commodity is. YOu should go to a Shipping agent specializing in LCL cargo. These guys consolidate the cargo and send by ocean freight across the world but they charge on per CBM (Volume weight) and have a minimum charge on small equipment usually 1CBM is the minimum. In these cases airfreight might be the cheaper option as you can pay per kgs instead.