I don't know about the furniture. I understand that there is quite a good 2nd hand market here as well. Certainly its not worthwhile to bring electronic items (I've heard way too many stories about problems even with converters).

$4000 doesn't sound bad at all for shipping but I don't know about customs fees and that sort of thing. I know in shipping things back from Germany when I was there, there was always pilferage from the cargos.

Where are you going to be working?