I'm Canadian, and I know there are cost differences, but here's my story. I had been on two South African safaris about 6 months apart. I figured I'd try to save a bit of money by having them shipped together, but ran into a couple issues. First off, as many others have found, communication is often horrible. I asked both taxidermists if they would communicate with the other to try to arrange consolidation of the mounts. I don't believe either made any effort to do so. The mounts from my second safari were completed before the ones from my first safari, and that taxidermist had their preferred shipper take possession of the crate. I felt it was only fair that I should be able to shop around and save myself some money on shipping and that this taxidermist jumped the gun by releasing the crate to their preferred shipper without consulting me. Then the taxidermist working on my animals from my first safari notified me that those mounts were done and ready to be shipped. The quote I got from them was cheaper, and it was a larger crate with more mounts! Long story short, I was trying to get the shipping companies to still ship the crates together, and for the best price. Again, communication became an issue. For the most part, it was the taxidermist dealing with the shipping company on my behalf, and it took far too long with far too little progress. Then COVID hit, and the cost jumped up nearly $1000! The taxidermists recommended waiting things out a bit to see if prices went down. They've now increased another $1500! The only "good" thing was that the one taxidermist found enough time to finally send me pictures of my mounts (that I had requested several times) and there were some issues that I wanted corrected with the mounts. I still don't know if that's been fully addressed, as (again) the communication SUCKS!!! So here I am, a year later and the price for the shipping has gone up by $2500 or more, but hey, at least the communication has remained the same!
![A Bang Head :A Bang Head: :A Bang Head:](/styles/default/xenforo/smilies.original/a-bang-head.gif)
As far as dip and pack vs having animals mounted in South Africa, I would much rather have someone here do it, but with it costing 300% more, I simply can't afford it! Even with the 'new' cost of shipping.