Its agood lesson. A worthy note. always pack pallets yourself! Always! And pack them they cannot be stacked with a dditional large flags inside the plasictic wrap (all 5 sides) stating they cannot have things stacked on too. Do it with a all relevant languages. Dont assume these guys are good at their jobs, they really arent.
Super fragile make wooden boxes.
Another important note. Wood pallets go through fumigation and inspection. They are stamped. In order to prevent pests and pathogen spread. Dont reuse old one, you will either be risking biosecurity or you may get caught up in cusoms for a long expensive frustration. If using pallets, go plastic and dont pack in wood.
If you must use wood packaging, do it right. And note the last few years the taiwan government has COMPLETELY fucked up the heat treatment process for wood export. So bring a bag of patience…
Is there non wood supports you can add to the pallet so that if they do stack it it would not damage your items? Maybe some steel square tubes to form a frame around the pallet. Steel is cheap. It may add weight but it’s better than your items getting damaged. Use one of those square tubes they use to build lean to and you can screw them together using self tapping screws.
Wait, you got someone else’s stuff in your delivery? I thought people usually just packed a shipping container full of stuff, locked it shut, and sent it on its way?
Sure ,you could do that. Similar in fashion to shipping trucks that transport AG products around taiwan. But the cost isnt even remotely worth it to use metals. Instead, just pack your pallets properly. Bkxes and plastic wrapare amazingly strong if done with minimal intelligence and marh skill. People can google how to do it with their items in mind. But basically every single pallet that is remotely fragile has a top reinforcement. Think wooden picture frame with cardboard sheeting. Its often wood, due to cost. And wood is perfectly fine. Just saying that if you are a random dude/dudette trus ting a freight forwarder, dont put valuable sht in there because they may recycle said wood packaging and it wont pass more intelligent countries/customs. Again, its a who knows situation due to lack of scale with personal shipping. But problems arise often especially in countries like Canada/USA where wood borne pests are of massive concern. Hence many containers getting rejected. Hence stamped wood (make sure your packaging is stamped because taiwanese agents are hit and miss).
We use some crappy companies as well because their prices are cheap. But make no mistake we do ALL the ground work and check things thrice before letting their idiotic hands even see the paperwork! If the items are sensitive, go with better companies and with insurance. We use them as well for some products or destinations. the same rule applies: in taiwan check thrice lol. Even then, prayer doesnt hurt.
Side note. If it is easy stuff that isnt massive. Just air frieght it. Prices arent hugely different normally. Though will depend on country and covid price fixing shenanigans.
How about Storing VS Selling stuff VS shipping? Any experience or suggestions?
I might be out of Taiwan for at least 3 years. Might come back then, or many years later. Got some big and more-or less valuable stuff (30K Fridge, 60K Wine Fridge, 60K huge wardrobe) and lots of smaller stuff.
As far as I understand selling wouldn’t net much. Shipping would be expensive, and the appliances are all 110V.
But storing the stuff would mean paying a few thousand NT every month. And sooner or later the cost of storage exceeds the value as well. At 4.1K NT per month the total re-purchasing value of the above mentioned stuff would be reached after 3 years.
But can’t go for super cheap storage either I guess, else when we come back all might be moldy and rusted. Maybe find a “dry” area in Taiwan to store stuff? But I didn’t find any significantly drier areas yet…
The container place I cleared cost 5000nt a month, 20 foot container, can hold a lot of stuff. But no climate control so everything will be moldy after a few months. I don’t even know if climate control storage even exists in Taiwan.
However your decision shouldn’t be based on how much you can get for it selling them, but how much will it cost to replace them. Stuff like mattress is very expensive to replace, especially for a good one, but no one will pay anything for it.
It won’t let me copy and paste a table, but here’s the table, ish:
|Size|Standard|Climate-controlled
|5’ x 10’|$67|$85|
|10’ x 10’|$107|$132|
|10’ x 15’|$133|$173|
|10’ x 20’|$156|$222|
The fact that your non climate controlled one of the same size cost almost as much in Taiwan makes me think there’s some highway robbery going on (unless it was in Daan/Xinyi)
These guys claim that the storage is humidity controlled. As to how much they don’t say. They do offer wine storage service where it’s kept fairly cold and dry inside, but that’s a bit more expensive.
If you are leaving Taiwan for a bit then location is less of an issue… so you can choose a more remote location or upper storage units.
Storing might be worthwhile if you have a lot of valuable stuff and you know you’re coming back. You can’t ship those appliances because of the voltage, so it doesn’t matter, does it?
It’ll cost you more to store appliances and furniture indefinitely than it will to sell them at a loss, especially if you don’t come back as planned or if they start getting moldy.
When I was moving here I started selling things ASAP, because some of those things sat unpurchased for a long time and i had to drop prices. Some things sold almost immediately. It wasn’t stressful because I got started early, although the futon sold fast and I spend a few months on my carpets in the living room!
True. I had one in Saudi Arabia because I was in a situation where both 110 and 220 were used. They take up space and generate heat, and also have to be purchased…
Would need to step up, in this case
I still think a fridge is easy enough to replace and too difficult to ship that, unless it has some sentimental value, I would sell it.
Using 110 appliance in a 220 country is far more problematic.
In most 110 countries there are 220 that can be available if you can wire up a breaker or something. But if you got 220 and you have 110 appliance then it’s really hard to just step it down without massive transformers.
(Regarding having to buy them, come on, they aren’t that expensive especially if we are talking about getting your super wine fridge working for cooling those wines from the Rhin).
If you need to run 220 appliance in a 110 country, there are 220 lines that are used to power large appliance. I am sure you can wire directly into those or have an electrician make an outlet for you.
