Shipping v/s buying items in India

[novanata]

I've about 6K USD to use for my relocation in Apr'10.
I can use it either for anything towards relocation and not necessarily for shipping. For eg. I could use the 6K for Realtor fees.

The things I have with me are not all that great.
My furniture is not high end. I've got fabric sofa and they need upholstery servvice. My 42" plasma is 5 year old still produces good pictures though. Dining table and breakfast tables are OK. Bedroom set is the plain louis phillipe set with no frills. My mattress has aged out and I need a new one. If I sell all these items I may get around 2K. I do need to carry things likes my daughters toys, some kitchen gadgets, books, photos etc.

I got a quote of $6600for 20' container door-to-door and about $4500 for LCL.


How much does a good mattress like sterns and foster with 800 coil count or higher cost in India if there is one? The thing is if I decide to take a new mattress with me, I will endup getting a FCL instead of LCL. Also as you can see LCL rates are overpriced.

If I give up on buying a mattress in USA can I get all items I mentioned for about 2 Lakhs ? If yes then it does not make sense to ship these heavy items.

Just trying to do a pros/cons of shipping v/s buying the items in the India for the same price.

I was in the same dielma as well and decided not to take the furniture/tv from here. For about 3lakhs rupees you should be able to furnish your house in India. I got a quote for a 46" Samsung LCD TV for 75K.
even if it costs a little more than here, I get my peace of mind about TV not broken.

[idlebrain]

Desi,
As per you post your furniture is not high end, and in OK condition. Have you ever thought of selling your furniture on craigslist or local garage sale etc and buy some high-end or decent stuff what ever you like and ship them to USA?

[desi4ever]

Thank you all for your inputs. I have decided to sell all furniture I have and buy everything brand new in India. The moving companies make you feel that all the stuff you bought is of low quality in India so that they get more business.

[fnln510]

We went through the same dilemma. Initially, we were talking about bringing our sofa set, bedroom set etc... and then we got the quote from the shipper and we were completely flored by the prices!! We are now in the process of selling everything we think that we rarely use or that is available easily in India. The one thing I find is that good quality solid wood furniture is rare and quite expensive in India. We have a solid wood bunk bed, dresser and dining table that we are very attached to but other than these items, we are getting rid of mostly everything else.

[B_Krishnakumar]

We do get very good mattresses here for INR 10-15 K. It would be a waste of container space to bring them.

If you have large US furniture (antique style bedroom/dining room sets), they may not fit well in Indian rooms (which are typically smaller). Besides, you get a chance to revamp your India interior decor with contemporary style furniture if you like.

We sold our 7-8 yr old dining set (table, 6 chairs, side cupboard), bedroom set (king size bed, 2 sidetables, mirror etc) and a living room set (10-yr old cane set) and brought back only a single leather sofa set which used to be my favorite. I am much happier with the full contemporary interior furnishings we have now.

[Sindu]

Hi ,
I want to share container to move our goods to india from NJ in the month of Apr 2010/ May 2010 , Please let me know. You can e-mail me at [email protected]