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Moving overseas...need help deciding what to bring.

#22
Sid Fang said:
...they may ask you to sign a statement swearing that you won't sell any of your goods for some period like a year. Not that there's any way they can stop you from selling sooner, but if you do, you better hope you don't run into any other customs/immigration issues in the mean time.
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I moved full household to Europe 10 years ago and this was correct, in my case at least, there was a signed statement that we could not sell anything we brought in (including 2 cars - it was one container) for one year. Just before that year expired we were visited by an inspector (checked on the cars and higher value items - was quick and polite...)
After the one year lapsed, sold one of the cars and the profit on that was enough to cover the cost of the entire move.

FerK said:
As an experienced individual having moved back and forth between Europe and America 4 times, I recommend: sell off ALL your older furniture and bulkier items (especially lower value articles), and take ALL your gear with you. Like Sid Fang said, whatever you decide to eventually sell in the UK, you'll get anywhere between 25% and 40% higher price over here than in the US (save for 110v items).

The same holds true for the itemized list of goods, although they won't ask you about the number of articles of clothing...just a bulk value. But for all appliances you will have to write down serial numbers, model number and year of purchase (estimated is OK). Coming from the US, you may be better off selling all your appliances for cheap, and buying new ones in the UK (or store them in the US until you return...you can't use them here anyhow). I recommend against using step up-converters.
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All of this.

I would sell any music items in Europe rather than the US. Nearly everything is substantially more expensive - good to stock up on strings, etc in the US first or on return visits. Mail order from the states is expensive and most things get stopped by customs which adds further time and cost.
 
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#24
StudioGC said:
My wife's company has promoted her and the promotion means a move to London from the Washington D.C. area. Not sure what I'll do, but I'll figure it out. I once met and chatted with Ronnie Wood at Heathrow, so maybe I'll ring him up for a jam session. Ya right....

Ok, if your browsed the classifieds lately you may have seen a bunch of my gear for sale. I'm moving and need to get down to the minimum of gear. I'm bringing my Markbass Jeff Berlin combo. I'm going to give it a go on converting it to 240volt.

I thought for sure I was going to bring my 1974 Mustang bass and possibly a Squier beater P or J back up. But now I'm really digging my recently put together mutt bass which is a 11.3 pound 1976 Jazz bass. The weight scares me off a bit, but I have to say, it sounds so great I'm almost willing to deal with the weight and keep it. It's perfectly funky and cool and gives a great sound.

Anyway, decisions, decisions.

BTW, my wife's company is paying for a 40' shipping container to move stuff over, what should I load up on? Which bass would you take over?
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Well you don't have to about Rotosound strings!
 
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#28
As someone who recently went through that... BRING ALL THE MUSIC GEAR YOU CAN FIT IN THAT CONTAINER.

I pretty much cashed out, sold everything but my main bass before moving to the US figuring I'd have better prices here, only to find my budget calculations were a bit off, plus had some price hikes (PRS SE Line went up by 40% or so recently) and companies disappear under me (I sold my Genz Benz stuff thinking I could sell the 600W amp in my country and use that cash to buy the 900W version here with a bit of change left... GB disappeared in the meantime :P), so I couldn't really pick up my old setup again. To this day I regret it.

At worst you still don't like them, you have some scarce-ish stuff you can move at inflated London prices ;)
 
#30
You could always put your US gear into storage (or a relatives or friends house), and get new gear when you arrive in London.

There's quite a few music shops around the place, so you could just get some new gear.

There's quite a few Mark Bass dealers about too.
 

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