There are a lot of people in Germany who threw their Eheim Filters away and went for the internal Mattenfilter solution. Following the forums over here I did not find one post that was not totally happy with that system concerning its ability to filter biologically with no need to service and maintenance.
It is cheap as it is only a pump and a foam mat.
The downside on this filter is, that it is in your tank and takes quite some space. Some people hide it with moss.

One good resource to find information about this kind of filter is
Aquaristik ohne Geheimnisse - (C) by O.Deters , it is in german only though.

His apporach is very technical not esoteric.

When my friends set up a new tank they sometimes come and take some of my used filtermaterial to inoculate their new filters with transport times between 30mins. and 3 hours. That seems to work. I do not know how you could ship that with success.
Maybe stored in aquarium water with a little biomass to chew on could work.

Robin