Hi all, I’m headed to the East Coast of the US in the Spring and will of course have an eye out for an addition or two to the collection. Just not sure how best to get them home to the UK. Should I just ship them or is there any way of getting lamps or parts back on the plane? Damage, Cost and Airport Security and Customs charges are factors. Will be in Washington DC, New York, Cape Cod and Boston. I’ll have a car and more time on the Cape so figure that will be my best bet for doing some lantern hunting. Finishing in Boston so will have usual city shipping options from there I expect. Likely looking at a one or two, not dozens. Any advice?
Scott, check the website of the airline you are travelling with. They should have information regarding transporting of dangerous goods. I have transported a number of lanterns and stoves in my luggage. I strip the lantern down and carry as parts. The main problem I have found is cleaning out the old fuel. COKE is a good cleaner whilst travelling. If inspected, a smelly font will be confiscated. Pack light and leave plenty of room for lanterns. This posts deals with QANTAS Visiting Australia, any chance of flying back with a lamp? .
If you can't bring a stove that has had fuel it, same should apply to lanterns, lamps. Try FedEx or UPS. I brought a small gassie stove when I flew to Alaska. Duane
I’d not thought of stripping them down. I’d best pack a few tools then! The plastic bags are a good idea too. I assume the tins in the photo are globe sized? It is the glass that most concerns me. Too dangerous as carry on I presume but needs to take some handling abuse if going in the hold!
When I would work at an airport secrurity facility. Alle the arre bits would urge me to pick you out of the line. Besides the smell of kerosene, weird parts, when x-rated, will look dangerous too for some people ;-)
I usually have a vague kerosene smell that follows me around anyway. I could have problems regardless! Hmm, this is all sounding rather stressful! Given where I am going, I’m more likely to be visiting antique shops rather than any miraculous garage sale finds, so I could probably asked for whatever I find to be packaged and shipped. I was just hoping to avoid the shipping charges etc, otherwise I might as well just order online!
Scott, I buy stuff at the ICCC conventions and from antique shops every year across the US. I never had any problem with an airline. I usually break all items apart and wrap them individually in bubble wrap. Fragile items like glass shades go properly wrapped up in the carry-on. All suitcases are x-rayed of course and sometimes opened by the TSA for inspection but I always got everything safely back home. Nothing was ever confiscated. I even brought an 3-burner suitcase stove and a foldable camp kitchen as additional pieces of luggage back home, properly wrapped in cardboard with just the carrying handle sticking out. ;-) I can bring goods in the value of EUR 400 back home without any taxes (only if brought with me). This year my suitcase was only half full. :-( If I ship, any size parcel would cost from approx. US$ 70 up (even a lightweight Aladdin lampe shade) and then I have to pick it up from Germany customs and pay 19% VAT plus abt. 2% taxes (non-electrical lighting) on the value of the items plus the shipping costs!!! Sometimes I bring an extra lamp suitcase full of bubble wrap (and some tools) and depending on the airline and your travelling class you may bring that suitcase without extra charge or for a flat rate of US$ 100. Might make sense, depending on what you've bought. Good luck. :-)
Reading British Airways guidance it shouldn’t be an issue. The stuff they’ll let you take in your hold luggage is actually really worrying! Axes, Blowtorches, certain guns!! Hand luggage is a bit more restricted of course. No limit to the number of knitting needles I can carry in hand luggage though. I’d comply with someone holding a knitting needle to my throat! Anyway, I’ve started tagging antique shops and flea markets on route!
I would thoroughly wash/rinse items, get rid of any smell/residue at all. Dismantle things so there are no "pressure vessels" and everything's vented. If it looks like a stack of parts instead of full lamps it should be good to go as "spare parts". I'd be tempted to send it home in a USPS priority box, I've had great service from them. The tricky bit may be the customs paperwork (CN22 I think it is) where you'd have to specify a sender's address etc. You could take the globes home in your luggage just in case though? Happy hunting all the same! Alec.
If you do decide to mail the lanterns or stoves home, I'd probably package the glass globes into metal coffee cans (ask around at cafes or check people's curbside recycling which I've done) and pack the globes in those cans with appropriate padding. Then fly home with the glass in those cans. That would decrease your shipping costs.
Rollschmidts flew back to Germany from Argentina recently with lamp finds, as he reported in THIS post. He said,
My guess is you won't be in Rochester NY but if you are I'd help you break stuff down. There's a huge network of collectors on the east coast so finding a helping hand shouldn't be to difficult.
