I'm pretty sure this has been covered before, but I'm bad at searching and didn't find anything. Here are my questions; the country in question is Malaysia (if that matters):

Good/bad idea?

Rough cost?

Best company (USPS/UPS/FedEx)?

Precautions?

Shipping a frame internationally is expensive regardless of the carrier. I recently shipped a Pake frame to Malaysia and I'm pretty sure it was around $135 (I'd need to find the receipt).

Whatever you do, insure it for the full value because there's a good chance it may disappear.

Thanks for the input. I would most definitely insure the frame (do I insure for the actual value or the sale price?). When I get home I'll measure my frame box and see what the shipping calculator spits out... though I fully expect something around the $100-$150 range.

USPS is the only option. priority or express are the only services that allow insurance. express is the only one that offers real-time tracking, though both are trackable in the event of a problem. there is a maximum box dimension...check it out and make sure you're under. generally, a frame box will work and a bike box will not. it has been a couple years, but i shipped a few frames to western europe (uk/france/ireland, maybe others) and with priority service and insurance (all <$1k) i don't think any of them were $100...$75-80, as i recall.

fedex/ups was on the order of $350-400? that seems crazy and may be overestimating, but it was *dramatically* more for the lowest cost insured service. i didn't look any further.

USPS was extremely reliable for me, and i was doing a lot of int'l shipping at that time.

(end info. stop here if you don't want to hear me ramble.)

the only box USPS ever did lose on me was sent to a place that i didn't even know existed before the parts went there. 'reunion', a french colony way out in the indian ocean. it took 3 months with a stop in paris for the parts got there, and then the recipient wanted to argue customs charges of ~US$7! he screwed around so long (a week?) that the french postal service on the island returned the box as undeliverable. so another 3 months (yes), and a cellophane encased blob of paper pulp arrives at my door, with the standard apology form letter. contents gone. it took some doing, but they did actually reimburse me for every penny i lost, including the shipping cost.

My buyer ended up bailing on me after I informed him of the shipping costs (naturally, I would have done the same).

A Canadian buyer bought a cycling computer off of me on eBay. USPS shipping calculator and FedEx locations are both quoting me $40+. What the heck? I also expect him to ask to cancel the transaction.

Yeah, man...for whatever reason, it's expensive as all hell to ship stuff to Malaysia. Just for the heck of it I dug out the receipt from when I shipped that frame via USPS - it was $126.

edit: It was a frame & fork so it was a little heavier than just a frame. Still, though...

a usps priority flat-rate envelope or small box is ~$10 to canada.

I figured it out. USPS stopped accepting mail to Canada because of the Canada Post strike. The only available service is GXG, which is like $45+.

Yeah, man...that Postal strike is a big pain in the ass.

That's socialism for you.

Shipping a frame from LA to canada was 120 dollars for me.

You got ripped off.

He sent me a anvil case to ship his bike in, And he also wanted it 2 night air or something. had to use DHL because they only had the courier plan

I don't really care how much it costs to ship something as long as the buyer pays.