@Trinity River Bottoms Boomer posted:Johan: Since this Corona Nonsense Crap gripped the country (Germany) Deutsche Post has added a surcharge (cheap excuse) to packages shipped to the US. I believe the cost amounts to ca. 35 Euros.
No way will I pay additional postage (e.i. robbery) to benefit DP. (That's Deutsche Post again folks, not Dr. Pepper...LOL) Due to health issues here on the home front I'm currently not doing any model railroading, so I don't have any problems for the time being. Since there are excellent train shops here in Europe (including the UK and Ireland) who handle American and Canadian model trains (as well as books too) if and when I decide to make any purchases, they'll be conducted on this side of The Big Pond as it is to begin with.
On top of international shipping charges, there's also the issue of customs (duty) which helps to drive up the costs even more. When you're on a fixed income, the hobby is placed at the bottom of the list, whereas medicene is at the top. No ifs, ands, or butts about it, this is just the horrible ugly truth, period!
So, I'll continue to do without for the time being. It could be worse you know. Like loosing your life, or a family member, in the wildfires currently raging out of control in CA, OR, and WA.
I rest my case.
Here in Finland, Posti is raising its prices because the amount of letter mail has decreased. Sometimes if Lionel starts paying attention to quality control I can buy their products again.
I also bought a lot of stuff from Germany and Europe, and I know that, for example, the DP is about half the price than the Finnish post office.
The main thing, however, is that you can be confident that the product you ordered is in order. If four of the five products you ordered are broken, then there is a problem somewhere. Now I rely more on MTH products. Lets see and wait.
Johan
