International Shipping Question (380 Bumper Covers)

[mcshinigami]

I've been playing around with the notion of getting some 380 VRX Body Parts on my car (Front/Rear Bumper Cover and Spoiler). Over the last few months I've looked into stuff quite a bit digging around on various forums (mostly Australian) and even talking to a few Australians on Facebook. From what I've read and heard, the parts are not bad to get in Australia. Basically you or someone goes into a Mitsubishi Dealership and they can order them. I think they said it cost somewhere around 250 for each of the parts basically. I can't just order them off some website and have them shipped AFAIK. It seems I have to either find a courier that I pay and trust or go there myself. According to AU Mitsubishi they can't sell me anything themselves because of safety restriction differences between the countries. I'd need a courier (which I think I can get) but shipping it is CRAAAZZZYYY expensive. It's something around 4-5x the cost of the part in shipping, which is not even close to worth it I don't think. The big part of its expense is the dimensions of the parts.

I'm really just wondering if anyone has had any experience with international shipping for larger car parts. I know JDM stuff is pretty big in any import circle. Also, can bumper covers be rolled up at all? I was wondering the possibility of taking a bumper cover and just rolling it up inside a box. That would make the dimensions a lot better I would think.

Any help is appreciated. This is more something I've been theoretically working out the feasibility of more then anything.

[tamim13]

Yes we do get our bumper covers folded when they are shipped. They fold the ends of them so that the box is flatter. When you get them here, you just have to open them out and let them sit for a while to straighten out. Worst case scenario, you will have to use a little heat to get them in shape again. The last time I got stuff shipped from overseas, it was shipped DHL and came in 3-5 business days, with tracking and signature required.

[mcshinigami]

Do you remember what shipping was? The estimates I'm hearing from people are like $2-3k which is not affordable at all for me for these parts. Is that just the cost of internationally shipping larger parts?

[tamim13]

$2-3000? That's insane. I got my bumper shipped for about $200 (just the shipping) from Malaysia.

[mcshinigami]

$200 in shipping I'd be totally down with, but not that's the quotes I'm getting from Aussie guys. I thought it was crazy, but people keep telling me it's expensive to ship things off the island.

[Galantman03]

you might have to tell them to fold the bumpers lol

[tamim13]

If you have a contact (friends or family) over there, they can work out getting it shipped via Sea freight rather than Air. That would be much cheaper as they charge a flat rate for a box, rather than the weight etc. It would just take a month or more to get here.

[mcshinigami]

I'd be totally fine with that, but my only contact from over there is some random person from another forum. Not sure how much of a burden/risk it is to go that route. Most people i talk to are not really sure how to ship via sea either.