I ran across the the same problem trying to ship a frame to the US from Japan. It is impossible to fit the frame within a box that can meet the US postal size requirements. The door to door companies charge three to four times what the postal charges would be. It is not prohibitive to mail a frame sized box to Canada though, and it is suprisingly inexpensive. If only there was a way to get cheap forwarding to the US from there......
Dennis Young Hotaka, Japan
> I should have added the following warning to my last message, stating a german
> eBay auction:
> Don't bid for (larger) frames or bikes on german eBay unless you are sure that
> the seller will ship it to the US and knows how to do this!
> I have to correct an older statement of mine that it isn't a problem for
> german sellers to send frames or bikes to the US.
> I just learned the hard way that it is indeed a problem. While it is very easy
> (simple customs declaration) and cheap (39 EUR) to send a box which is smaller
> than 120x60x60cm via the german post, it is absolutely impossible to send a
> box that doesn't fit into this size to the US like a typical 95x65x20cm box
> for a frame with the german Post (Note: If two dimesions are over 60cm you are
> out). The reason is that the US post refuses to take "oversized" boxes.
> The only possibility are door to door delivery companies like UPS, FedEx, etc
> who demand several hundred EUROs!!!
>
> Dirk