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Being located in Germany and regularly trading overseas (with about 100 deals up to now), I feel quite competent on some questions
that were raised - I have no idea on the shipping fees of other European countries, but I can tell you something about the different
speed and prices of parcels from Germany that may be a miracle to you:
In Germany there are two categories of parcels: "small parcels" (Packchen) and " big parcels" (Paket). The small parcels are limited
to 2kg and can be sent either by surface mail or by airmail: surface mail is $7.50 and takes 4-8 weeks. Airmail fees vary from $9 -
$20 (depending on weight), and small parcels take about 10 days by airmail. Small parcel CANNOT be insured. So compared to shipping
fees in the U.S., surface shipping up to 2kg is VERY cheap - but takes time.
Now it gets tricky: Big parcels up to 4kg CANNOT be sent by surface mail, but nevertheless there are two different options:
airmail/surface combined or just airmail. Most sellers in Germany send their parcels by combined airmail/surface for $25 up to 4kg -
now what does that mean? The package goes by airmail to a big airport (NY...) in the U.S. and from there it is delivered to its
final U.S. destination by surface mail. Now when you're located in the middle of nowhere, it may take some time from NY to Roswell,
NM.... (I have had packages sent that way that took up to 5 weeks). The fastest option is airmail/airmail, that takes your parcel to
a nearby airport that is close to your place (within 10 days). This equals the fast delivery of the small parcels, but is VERY
expensive: $40 up to 4kg, and yet no insurance included (which most sellers in Germany are not aware of: usually insurance to most
countries of the world is included in big parcels - but not to the U.S. and not to Canada... it's not stated explicitly by the
German post, that's why most sellers here do not have a clue about it...).
Additional time may be lost if the goods park at your customs (although if declared properly they should move fast: there are no
custom fees to construction toys in the U.S.!!).
And there's another thing which may apply to your specific parcel: there's always the possibility that it gets stuck in the
pre-Christmas traffic..... one question: did it have an airmail sticker? If so, it WAS sent by airmail. If there is no airmail
sticker applied, it went by surface... how much postage was applied to the set? DM/$ ratio is about 2:1, so with the data I gave you
it should be very easy to figure out if you were cheaten or not!
brickhead
(FUT to lugnet.market.shipping)
--
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brickhead's brain: http://www.brickbay.com/store.asp?p=toorude
e-mail: brickIdonotwantanyspaminmyhead@web.de
All in all it's just another brick in the wall.....
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Jon Furman <rambocalrissian@yahoo.com> schrieb in im Newsbeitrag: G9L9rs.J2z@lugnet.com...
> > one last thing i won a bid of 66 bucks on a kings castle from this guy in
> > germany in november, i sent the money and he sent it out on december 13
> > i just got my package by AIR MAIL!2 days ago don't anybody bid on stuff from
> > ebay user spielbude he ripps u off with shipping prices and i got my package
> > all crushed, thank you postal service...
> > it was also missing pieces, a wall, and some grey bricks and black inverted
> > slopes. in his ebay thing he said it was complete... dmanit all
> > but at the least i got it
> >
> > sheesh
>
> I've been getting that a lot from European Sellers too. Everything I pay
> for Airmail on I get like months later, Do you think this is a Shipping
> thing (other countries postal services can be sketchy sometimes) or are
> there a lot of people on Ebay ( all over the world) trying to rip people off
> on shipping? I've been waiting three months mow for a package from the UK
> that the guy swears he shipped airmail. (yeah right) I'm ready to write
> the whole thing off as being stiffed. It's hard because all of the good
> sets seem to be trading hands at low prices from over there. I've noticed a
> lot of the european sets are complete with boxes and posters still, do you
> guys think that Castle was more plentiful over there, or are us yanks not
> selling our best stuff? Jon
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | European Shipping was Re: Knight's History
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| (...) I've been getting that a lot from European Sellers too. Everything I pay for Airmail on I get like months later, Do you think this is a Shipping thing (other countries postal services can be sketchy sometimes) or are there a lot of people on (...) (23 years ago, 2-Mar-01, to lugnet.castle)
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