I was hoping to have trophies from Namibia sent by sea in order to save on costs. My shipper recommended against it saying that slippage might occur while they wait around in hot weather for a cargo container to be completely filled prior to shipping. The shipper also said this delay could cause problems because a CITES permit is involved and it might expire during the wait.

What say the experts?

Contact Pam Foerester i also had a plan to have my trophies by boat but i think by air is the way to go - and it was cheaper than i thought.

Thanks for the response. Why do you say air is the way to go?

Pam is who I am dealing with, and she is very pleasant and professional.

Air shipping to the US is not cheaper than I thought. Right now I am looking at $2800 just to Houston.

I will say that Pam is very pleasant to deal with.

I've done both;made out ok on sea shipping,but for finished mounts,not raw skins.

I'm spoiled in that NYC for imports is close;

How about import to east cost,then direct to tannery from import.

Know someone from Ca. who did this,at the time(4 years ago)saved himself the domestic part of the freight,and it was cheaper to NY than any other destination for the trans atlantic part of the shipping.Worked with his taxidermist to subtract the cost differences on his mounts, since they end up at the tannery one way or the other.Had his tannery guy box up skulls and forward them on,for a very resonable fee.Just the cost of the shipping.

Nice to get a quote door to door,but I found with a little leg work;it's possible to trim costs significantly,if you have the time to learn the system.

You can also ask for the air routing to go at different speeds for less money.Depends on what the shipper has arranged.Basically puts your freight on a lower priority for the connections.Then the airlines decided when the crate goes within a specified time frame.I'm always offered 10 or 21 days in shipping from Namibia by air,around 30% difference (3 different times for shippment for me).

good luck

Dan

When shipping raw trophies by sea the only port of entry is NY unless that has changed. Then you will have to pay the ground transport to your taxidermist and depending on where they are located it just might kill your savings. I have been told that shipping by sea can take up to 30 days longer than by air so if if your CITIES permit covers the additional time then you should have no problem.

“$2800 just to Houstonâ€, That seams high to me, is this with broker fees?

Have you looked at flying it in to Dallas?

It was cheaper for me to ship (fly) mine to Dallas and then put it on a truck to Corpus Christi, then it was to have it going into Huston then truck it to Corpus Christi.

The $2800 to Houston does not include broker fees. I need to clarify though that these are completed mounts, not horns and hides. This includes a pedestal mounted kudu, shoulder mounted gemsbok, hartebeest and springbok as well as a zebra rug.