Hi Rick (MovingToCebu), a late welcome to the forum from me, enjoy and I hope you find some answers. This will be long winded but you might pick up on a few points from our experiences as well as others input, Bukidnonkane is a great example.
Firstly If I could ask, how/why is your wife exempt from duties and taxes? Diplomat?
My better half lived and worked in Australia (permanent resident) for over 5 years and was only allowed PHP 250K of exemptions,,,,,Ìý returning Filipino and not an OFW. That didn't matter in the end for us but I was waiting for the bill that never came when our container arrived here with the original seal. (the new government?)
We too looked at buying an in service certified container to pack, ship and unload onto our property, about another AU 2K when you take hire fees into account so we could firstly have time to unload at our leisure and a storage container afterwards, firstly we are absolute beachfront/salt air, high end expat houses that could turn their noses up at the prospect of looking at a shipping container but the clincher was the crane costs to unload an 8 or 9 ton loaded container given our location was a 3 lift move with the crane and they wanted PHP 75 to 80K. We put that one to bed.
We searched and got costs from many companies, most would not entertain the idea of delivering a container to our home on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, giving us 2 or 3 weeks to cram it full, pick it up, ship and deliver to our door 7/8 hours north of Manila in a short semi, give us 2 weeks to unpack then pick up the empty container. The worst part with most of these "shoddy shippers" was the fact that they wanted us to find our own forwarder in Manila, search we did but most never responded and those that did were not helpful to our needs.
We finally found a company in Oz that we had confidence in, dealt with them over a 12 month period with organising and costings, dealing with their forwarders in Manila and honestly professional and more than helpful, not often found here in PH. their Australian partners (our shippers) were the same. A good partnership.
Cut to the chase. AU $7,940.00: a brand new 20 ft container delivered, 3 weeks for us to load and manifest (some 10/11 typed pages giving full details but no values), then picked up with a side lifter, driver put the customs seal on the container as well as our padlocks,Ìý Brisbane port, shipped, delivered Manila, customs, BIR, delivered on a short Semi to our door, a mini van accompanied our load with 5 workers to unload into our house and studio under our direction as we ticked off the manifest, hard workers that were very accomodating, we supplied them lunch and gave them pesos for dinner on their return to Manila.
Those guys arrived here at 7 am after a long drive, worked all day, left here around 5 PM for another 7 hour return journey, labour is certainly cheaper here than Oz.
Prior to the container arrival in Manila Ben, the better half was back in PH. while I was working in OZ., he was cleaning up the mess left by our previous tenant, had to go back to Manila to our forwarders, give the keys for the padlocks on the container, sign documents, passport verification, Australian permanent resident doc's, declarations etc.
All in all the biggest hurdle was organising the fanfare from Australia, the PH. side was easy and professional.
Do it again? Yep as we probably shipped AU 50 to 60K in furniture, tools, artworks, computers, kitchen things I knew we couldn't buy here or were ridiculously expensive.
I also packed thing that I thought we needed, doh. Sold stuff that we should have kept.... Doh. Now we are shipping things from Oz/other countries in Balakbayan boxes or internet purchases. We sent a brand new rotary clothes line from Oz in our container and simply called it a clothes line in the manifest because in my 9 years traveling about in PH.Ìý Never saw one, we are the envy of the western toffs living around us that hang sheets on bits of string between trees because their pull out aluminium lines are too small, you get the picture, think long and hard about your move.
Going back we can't change what we did/shipped but a 65 inch curved screen on the second hand market in Oz is worth 2 bob and a bottle of beer, in PH.? Try and buy one, some decent brand PHP 100K. the 2 55 inch tv's the same, high end audiophile the same, quality furniture ditto.
As for your oak furniture, most western timbers unless it's cedar or cypress, a few others the termites will have a field day depending on your locale of course, another story if you are interested.
I can put you in touch with the forwarders we used in Manila and a quick search shows they have an office in Cebu, the guy I mostly dealt with was Irish/english from memory but his leading hand, Filipino had a great grasp of english and was more than helpful.
Send me a pvt msg if you want their details as the are forwarders dealing with around a hundred countries and I'm sure the can steer you in the right direction in the States.
Told you would be long winded. Good luck.
Cheers, Steve.
Ìý 
Traveling to the Philippines with your pet
Removals - UK to Philippines
Moving to the Philippines
Lifestyle in the Philippines
Getting married in the Philippines
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