Hi all, maybe some of you are in a similar situation:
Being located in Iceland, there is ONE BIG problem with buying rings from abroad and importing them: the Icelandic customs.
ANY parcel sent coming from ANY sort of business WILL be grabbed by those low down dirty rotten thieves, it really gets me going!
Taxes applied to the price AND to shipping-cost, PLUS customs duty and processing-fee will rack up the price to about 50-75% of the original or more in some cases I shouldn't wonder.
Buying from a private collector, you can get by this by them sending the letter in a private fashion, maybe adding a sort of 'Happy Birthday', or 'Merry Christmas' to it.
But from eBay for instance? Forget it. It will be grabbed, it will be delayed by up to a week AND then they might want you to actually DRIVE there to pick it up, AND then they want money from you!! For WHAT, I ask?!??!! I should charge them...
It really upsets me, as you probably can tell. (Sorry for the rant!)
But OK, from here on in I'm thinking of having any 'official' parcels sent to my brother in Austria, then he can send it to me in a private envelope (as a registered letter, though,which is quite safe I think) That'll be my eBay-strategy in the future, for example.
But maybe some here have similar experiences and might have tips/tricks of the trade to share on how to avoid this VERY annoying extra expense.
My Saloniki ring was grabbed by them, for example. It arrived today, and I shall not see it until late next week is my guess.
Let's see how much extra it will cost all together, I will update you on that here.
Sure, perhaps it is not so very much money at stake here, but it's the principle that has me incensed, and apart from that: money isn't the only thing invested into such a transaction, as I'm sure all collectors here know very well.
OK over and out for now, (thanks for 'listening' :-) )
Mark
