kahunaburger

Dear nieces and nephews - I have some bad news for you: no more presents from the US for you guys! Sorry! It’s just way too expensive.

After becoming a double uncle I decided to send some presents to the new family addition and because it was close to the other Tobias’ birthday as well (June 22nd) I added a “light” birthday present for him as well. Pia helped me to pick all the stuff and she also personally approved the presents. We are disorganized as always and in the 2nd week of June we went to the post office to send off the packet.
I asked the guy at the counter how long it would take to get the packet over to Germany. He said around 3 weeks or more. The “express” option was way too expensive, so I decided to head over to the UPS Store.
The declared value for all things in the package was around $150. I had to provide an itemized list of all the contents (never had to do that before). Ok - are you sitting? Let’s take a look at the shipping cost:

Yes, shipping was more than the contents of the package, however it was close enough to what I was quoted at the USPS, so I decided to go with DHL as the carrier. And before you ask: the package weighed 4.5 lbs.

I needed a Tequila after I put the shipping cost on my credit card - and it was only 9am in the morning: great start for a Saturday.

Sunday (a week later) 1pm, right after coming back from a 2hr hike, the phone rings. It’s the brother from Germany with “thank yous”. “you’re welcomes” follow. I mention in passing the extraordinaire shipping cost without providing a figure. He goes: “What? - We had to pay some Euros to receive the package!”. I go: “Are you kidding?”. “Nope - look at this:”

Elke and Marcus had to pay 12.32 euros in customs fees (”Zoll”), 38.43 in import purchase tax (”Einfuhrumsatzsteuer”) and 8.14 in other fees (”Sonstiges”). So that’s another $95 on top of what I had paid already.

My $150 present cost more than twice as much with fees/shipping/taxes added on top of it!

I’m afraid that’s the very last package I sent to Europe. From now on I’m only going to make purchases at international online stores like amazon.de.

PS: Dear niece/nephew parents - should Pia ever ask how the kids liked the rocks in the package, please say “they love them!”. After purchasing the real presents, Pia wanted to add some personal things to the package. One Saturday morning, while walking the dogs, she collected hundreds of little shiny rocks for Lisa/Tobias. They all ended up in the pockets of my shorts. By the end of the walk the weight of the rocks had moved my pants down to my ankles. She asked me to pack all of them with the other presents. I said I would, but I lied. Those rocks would have added another 20 lbs and I just didn’t want to spend $500 on the added weight. I hope you understand …