[meteorite-list] [IMCA] customs holding packages

[Brian Cox]

    Warren, this VAT-Value Added Tax has been a big discussion and a pain in 
the EU-European Union for the past few months, especially heavily discussed 
since Europeans and people in other countries are complaining more about it. 
Things were bad enough shipping to Italy and their pony express method of 
delivering snail mail, and thus now most sellers on ebay won't ship to Italy 
and most shippers from everywhere in the world don't want to ship to Italy 
because it's so slow there, but now you have this added VAT and it's a real 
pain. Many ebay sellers as you know state in the auctions they won't ship to 
Italy and now I'm seeing many more not shipping to Mexico.

I gave up on DHL 5 years ago since I would order products from St Martin/St 
Marteen and they always went to their god awful headquarters  along the 
Kentucky/Ohio border. Twice they opened the package and then DHL charged me 
between $65-$100 because Bubba and his cousin Larry and his brother Larry 
and his other brother Larry didn't like something comin' from no gosh dang 
country that had a French flag flyin' from it, since them frogs didn't help 
the U.S. of A. fight in Iraq and Bubba and the Larrys wouldn't eat none of 
them dang French fries. You get my drift and you know my sense of humor. 
Yes, folks in France and those that don't know me, I am making a joke about 
how people talk and act along the Ohio River area of Cincinnati, Ohio where 
DHL has its large hub, but it's true. I think they really didn't like that 
island or St. Barts since they have been rumored to stop packages written in 
French at the DHL hub. I gave up buying from St. Martin and just bought from 
the warehouses or stores in the U.S. that carried their products.

Your best bet is, as has always been done, "Mineral for research" $5.

Have a great day!
BC