International shipping of vintage computer collection

[AlexC]

Four months ago I moved from New Zealand to Berlin, Germany and bit the bullet by shipping my vintage computing collection here by sea. I fully expected some damage, but didn't want to leave it all in storage on the other side of the planet. I actually *use* these machines.

It all arrived yesterday (along with irrelevant stuff such as the rest of the family's clothes, books, shoes, pictures, toys, etc.). Everything was intact, including about a dozen CRT monitors and screens. No damage, no breakages. I've fired up all the systems and the only glitch is a colour VGA CRT with an intermittent electrical fault, but I think that had already started while in NZ. Can't blame the shipping company for capacitor deterioration and it's probably the least valuable item anyway.

So in the spirit of positive reviews, I can recommend NZ Van Lines in New Zealand and White & Company in the UK. Excellent service throughout.

(mods: feel free to move this if there's a better place for it)

 

[paul]

Going from the US to NZ I found that NZ biosecurity heats up the shipment on arrival to kill off bugs. All the CMOS batteries were dead and the IBM ring binder springs were "sprung."
I had a custom crate made in the US with a large desiccant pack to handle the ocean voyage. The customs clearance company here helped themselves to that and just sent me the contents.

 

[AlexC]

Yes, they're very hot on eliminating any incoming bugs. Flying into the country with undeclared food is asking for a big fine.

By contrast, all the Germans wanted from me was an insane amount of paperwork, but that's the way they do everything.

 

[roberttx]

Congratulations on doing that. I still regret not bringing my collection, when we moved from the UK to the USA.

I have a new collection now, but there were things that I still miss.