Very often the manufacturer prohibits it's dealers from selling to foreign nations.
That's the case with ThinkPad notebooks. I like ThinkPads, but I'm not gonna pay €3000 ($4300) for something that is $1300 in the US. So I called up some dealers in the USA and a lot of them said: "We do ship international. However, we are not allowed to sell ThinkPads to our foreign customers"
Anyway: There is always some webshop that doesn't stick to such ridiculous rules, so I still got my ThinkPad. With the English Windows.
If you look on eBay, there is also a seller that claims he is -due to regulations- not allowed to sell Maglites to Germany.
Anyway: That customs add WEEKS, no matter what, sounds familiar. I've given them a call here some time ago. When I complained about the added weeks, they said "Then you should have upgraded to priority mail." So I replied: "So unless I pay you guys and the carrier off with buying priority delivery you keep the packages a lot longer?" Sure they got pissed
Anyway: For the more expensive stuff (lenses, boatload of batteries) I use FedEx. Yeah, you pay more, but you get your package unopened, within a few days and receive a orderly request to pay taxes the next week in the mail.
Last package these frckng customs calculated everything as DVD's (only 1 DVD in package...): 19% VAT + 3.5% additional fine. The vast bulk of the package were books...: 6% VAT. :tired:
So my conclusion is: a lot of times I'm more then willing to pay the premium for FedEx.
For the HK stuff: Yeah, it's amazing what they can put in an enveloppe with "$5, gift" on it :devil:. Regular HK enveloppes don't get checked either here.