A friend of mine in Italy knows of a parts guy who disassembled
a similar piece of equipment who would be willing to give me
the disassembled parts for my use.

These are small parts, any one of which is just an ounce or
two, so the entire shipment would likely be under a pound.

I can wait forever for it, but I called UPS and Fedex who
said it would cost $120 (Mailbox etc) and $100 respectively
for them to pick it up in Italy and ship it to me in the USA.

Plus there are customs declarations to figure out.

Just curious if you have experience in this type of shipping?

There must be more than UPS/Fedex/DHL, right?

The location is Catania but I don't know what couriers might
be cheaper but is there any way to get the shipping down to
a reasonable cost?