Return to Hyderabad T-5

As per standard I did pretty well in getting rid of van. At first colleague in office said he is ready to pickup but need to secure loan, somehow it didn't work out but on same day another American couple came saw the car, took a test drive. All the time they were focusing on seats, interiors, dents etc, while I was trying to impress based on low mileage, engine pickup etc. Finally they made an offer. I took a day to decide and call back. Yesterday they came and paid the bankers check, changed the plates and drove off. But there was a small glitch, when I signed the title I printed name on wrong place i.e. on purchaser's name (looks like I am selling car to myself!) so to correct I need to get notarized correction form. Managed to get it on same day and everything is finalized... overall I likeed the way it went. Now with major task done, moving on to rest of packing.

Shippers and Shipping

I choose worldwide shipping company for pallet type shipping. I have following items,

- Leather Sofa, love seat, recliner
- Floor standing speakers for Home Theater
- Bike
- Elliptical machine
- 1 Queen, 2 twin mattress
- Additional 40 boxes medium size

Original estimate is around 350 cu.ft. Based on extensive blogs and research, I avoided buying any huge furniture here in US. Lot of friends who have returned suggested same. It seems in Hyderabad, Malaysian furniture is a good bet to get good quality furniture.

Tomorrow shippers are going to come and we are running hectic in completing all stuff. Since I choose to do all the packing, it’s kind of tiring especially to securely pack sofa etc. For all electronics, I first used bubble wrap and second layer of shrink wrap. For most of them I used original boxes and original form pads. Where ever required poured foam peanuts for shock protection. Coming to furniture
I bought stuff from UHaul furniture pads, they are pretty good. SO, its basically 3 layers, first with furniture pad, wrap it with bubble wrap and finally wrap it tight with shrink wrap layer. I am not sure how things will arrive finally but my commented that they do look like mummies and packing looks quite professional.
Finally for mattress and spring, just used our old quilts and securely tied with ropes.

Now waiting for day for shipping.....

Return to Hyderabad T-7 and counting

T-7 and counting

We have reached T-7 and things are getting to
closure and on track so far. Biggest items that were bothering were selling car and
disposing off major furniture. Based on experience start planning to sell
car/van well in advance.

Van Sale

I posted adv on craigslist.com and cars.com for selling the Van. From cars.com
no response at all even though they charged $40 for the service. Craigslist is simple and best network available out there. Only risk with craigslist is that often you will end up with lots of non-committed buyers asking too many questions. On craigslist adv is active only for a week, so keep refreshing it and every time you refresh there is sudden active responses. Regarding pricing, I used standard Kelly blue book (KBB.COM) and Edmunds.com websites. Edmunds is more close to market value and if you can close it around that price,its a good deal. Its better to start the process well in advance, atleast 2 months in advance if you want to strictly do private party sale. Selling it to dealer will be a ripoff and especially if they know that you are moving out of country. Few highlights to successfully sell car is that most of the people who come to see you vechile make the decesion within few minutes based on how neat it looks, its kind of LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT syndrome and it WORKS! So make sure car is cleaned throughly

R2H - Return to Hyderabad - T-25

Today, lot of things accomplished. Finalized on movers, spoke to them to confirm on date. Researched a lot and enquired many options, based on all the inputs and comparing side by side, I found that my stuff is less for full container. In terms of cost of full container versus pallet shipping, it was around $1000 which is still big amount for me right now. So I decided to got with pallet shipping. The shipping company assured me that, based on stuff I listed, they estimated 400 cu. ft and would fit on 2 or 3 pallets. In case, it exceeds 400 cu. ft, they quoted $2.5/cu. ft which I thought reasonable. Confirmed on pallet shipping. On packing front I decided to pack myself, espcially my high end home theatre speakers, telesope etc. Adopted following material for packing:

1. Got a huge roll of bubble wrap from Staples
2. Informed Walmart over the weekend usually close to midnight to store some packing boxes. Went in the morning at 7:00 AM, and they stored really good boxes much better than what you pay at U-Haul and in total 40 boxes
3. I wrapped every item into bubble wrap and over it tightly shrink wrapped it, this should give both shock absorbing and water/moisture proof.
4. Once I put them in box, poured foam peanuts aroung and closed it.
5. Especially for electronic items, I shrink wrapped outer box itself (little too much carried away with fool proof packing... yes I can get crazy ALL THE TIME!-)

R2H - Return to Hyderabad, India

T-30 for R2H. Excitements is high also and "TODO" list seem to ever grow and grow.

Still waiting on selling my Van, TV and lots of miscellenous furniture. Everyday is passing on in filling up boxes and sealing up. I am still depbating on following:

- To BUY or Not to BUY LCD
- To buy laptop or desktop

On other front, most of the purchasing is done. Out many intresting things, I could highlight are:

- Refractor telescope
- Polk Monitor floor standing speakers

Hope things come in proper shape and will definitely rock my Home theatre at Hyderabd. Keep visiting at some I am planning to write detailed article on setting up advanced Home theatre ... more to come. Need to run now