Winter Offensive Bonus Pack #14 arrived with the mail today.
Outside is a fine spring day, so the delivery it not exactly timely. However, since direct shipment from the US incurs absurd shipping costs (not MMP' fault) plus possibly extra customs duties (on product AND shipping costs...), I rather resort to a retailer. Who in turn resorts to bulk shipments for games from the US per ship (sic!)
The only cheap way for "direct" shipments I know of would be if you know someone in the US services on station in Germany forwarding product shipped to him.
Fun story I heard recently:
A relative of a friend of mine works for the US forces in Germany. The story goes, that if US personnel based in Germany get German beer cheaper then the Germans because they don't have to pay German Sales Tax (19%) in the PX.
However, that beer is not cheap for the US taxpayer: For "adminstrative and logistical reasons" that beer crate will be procured in Germany, shipped to an US base in Germany, flown to some logistic center in the US to be properly registered etc. Then it is flown back to Germany, delivered to the PX, where it is sold at a cheaper price than in a German supermarket outside the base.
I have to admit, that I was conviced only Germans could conceivably contrieve such an enormously efficient process. Well, live and learn...
Now, if I consider the shipment cost that I would pay for a one-way direct delivery of a "Beyond Valor" from MMP to my place with everything included, it defies imagination, what the overall cost of that 17 to 18 kilogram beer crate might be after having been flown half around the world - twice...
von Marwitz