mail order, think you have it rough?

Just ordered some hops and other various things from Belgium. And they screwed me on the customs. The order was $200 *with* shipping. So naturally, they charge customs on the whole thing, including shipping, and charged me $100 for customs.

That sucks. Wish I could find more of this stuff local, but I simply cannot. I could go local if I wanted to use only one type of hop but screw that. So guess I just gotta eat it. Luckily, that will last me a while. Need to order some yeast, but that order will be small, so customs will also be low. But man, customs suck. How the hell they get away with charging 50% is beyond me.

The dollar's weak right now too, though, which sucks for me. In April, it was 5.9 kuna (local money) to the dollar and it's now around 4.88. So I'm eating it at the moment.

On the bright side I now have some tasty Spalt Select, Hallertauer Hersbrucker, Hallertauer Perle and Challenger hops to add to the freezer as well as a refractometer.

Sorry, had to vent. As you were.

Sorry.

That really does suck. I can't imagine having to pay that kinda duty. It must really cut into the budget for things you would like to do.

You need to befriend some kind of diplomat that can smuggle things into the country for you or something.

I feel for you.

Yeah. Luckily I can drive to get grain. Hopefully they don't stop me at the border. Last time was no problem, so we'll see. Found a grain supply in country too, but no specialty grains at all from them. We'll see what I settled into over the next year or so. Likely I'll do some experimenting with making my own specialty grains, ala Randy Mosher's book.

The mail order's just for things I can't get here. But I can't get MUCH here, so gotta do it once in a while.

I hear you. Sent one of my company's gadgets to the UK for a review. The retail is $129 USD and customs hit the reviewer for $50! Talk about embarrassing.

Yeah, it's pretty lame. I wouldn't mind paying a normal tax on this stuff. But the rate is just way too high. Sucks. And this is for stuff that's not available here.

are you in a situation where you can plant and grow your own hops? getting the rhizomes might cost afew kuna but you'd be set in a year (if you're gonna be there that long)

malkore said:

are you in a situation where you can plant and grow your own hops? getting the rhizomes might cost afew kuna but you'd be set in a year (if you're gonna be there that long)

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I'm not in a house but I aim to plant at least one or two plants next spring outside of our apartment. That's iffy though. Dunno if rhizomes will make it through customs. Gonna try. And then there are the teens who are always hanging out outside stomping all over the plants. Gonna do my best to find a safe place to plant 'em if I can get rhizomes. But I'll still likely order hops, just less of them. I like to use a buncha varieties....

see if Forrest will ship to Croatia for $7.99???

AZ_IPA said:

see if Forrest will ship to Croatia for $7.99???

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Who's Forrest? I was gonna order Rhizomes from Freshops. Dave at Freshops is willing to send hops here so don't think he'll mind sending Rhizomes. The question is if they'll arrive.

MattHollingsworth said:

Who's Forrest? I was gonna order Rhizomes from Freshops. Dave at Freshops is willing to send hops here so don't think he'll mind sending Rhizomes. The question is if they'll arrive.

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He's the owner of Austin Homebrew supply and does flat rate shipping on all orders for $7.99. But, sadly, USA only....

AZ_IPA said:

see if Forrest will ship to Croatia for $7.99???

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Thanks for that.

Forrest

Yeah, seem to remember the USA only thing when I was looking into online shops early in the year.

And hello Forrest!