And don't forget to tell him how bad money transfer between the US and Europe is - And to think about the horrible trans- portation costs - but if he can get this prices, he should jup on (while I don't know, if the German language version can par in demand). Over here the actual price of a 2/10 is between 150 and 500 Mark, thats some 100 to 300 USD. Gruss Hans P.S.: my last one, including almost a complete lisa in original packed spare parts was just free - I had only to pay the gas for 1500 miles of diving :) -- Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut HRK

THe cheapest (at least from an european perspective) is still a direct account to account transfer (and the method of coice over here ). Not so new, I know at least 2 men who are visiting US fleamarkets/ swap meets and buy tons of junk, fill containers and sell them again in a simmilar environment over here - I found a nice Patchinko machine here, that has been used in Seattle before and shipped this way. By the way, I still lokk for people interested in Russian PDP clones - I can send some, but again one is to expensive. If I had any idea to sell them over in the US, I would like to do this with european computers. But its hard without storage and time to sell - I just can't stack them and wait for sale. And for the cost, a complete 20' container is available for less than 1800 USD between the West coast and an European port (like Hamburg) So, I guess, starting from 10 or 12 compurers, this would be a lot cheaper than surface postage - and more early if they are heavy weight S100s. Gruss H. -- Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut HRK

Within Germany they are free (true for most private accounts, sometime restrictet to 100 or so sending (!) transfers per month) or only covered by a _very_ small charge like 0.3 or 0.6 USD and within Europe, depending on your bank and your account type, but generaly only a _very_ low fee). And if there is a fee, it's only for sending, never for reciving (with an exception of an automatic withdraw from your account - like for membership fees - where the reciving party is paying for the service). In fact, I'm always astonished about the fact that cheques, are still a common thing in the US to do regular payments, like rent, car loan, or what ever - I have seen the last personal cheque (with an exception of the Eurocheque) over 25 years ago - almost anything is done via bank orders. I had to learn a lot of new facts about money transfer over the past year for my classic computer deals. For example, there are bank institutes in the US that tell their people they don't know about a SWIFT number, or don't use them ... Gee - almost like a forgotten island in the international money world (no, not the UK - the Brits may be conservative, but they are not that stupid :). SWIFT is the international transfer system - thats the way how people like Soros shift billions of dollars within minutes around the world (and send whole countries to doom) - nobody carries boxes of bucks around the world since more than 30 years, and it is (if you pay a fee) open to everyone you could transfer 10 cent or 10 millions within some seconds - to be honest, for 'normal' people like us, it still takes two working days until you get a response. Gruss H. -- Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut HRK

At 06:06 PM 12/23/98 -0000, Eric Smith wrote: Over here, it acts like a check, and as far as I remember, didn't cost me anything to deposit. - John

At 01:53 PM 12/23/98 -0500, Ward Donald Griffiths III wrote: My experience is with receiving these as payment from overseas customers. Customers being what they are, they'd complain about the least little thing - but I don't remember any complaints about conversion rates. I did hear about high wire-transfer fees and often had pleas to put false values on customs forms... - John

Maybe cecause accepting conversation rates is just usual (as long as they stay within a acceptable amount), But wire fees are realy enourmous - for example, if I want to use Western Union transfer I pay a basic fee of about 30 USD _plus_ an additional fee based on the amount. And for the value - I can't see any reason to put a high value on any _private_ _second_hand_ sale to risk paying custom fees. Althrough there is no more an additional tax for computers (they dropped it about a year ago) or computer parts (remember wehn sending a PC radio card - it's a computer part, not a radio) you still have to pay 16% VAT of the value on the form if it is above a certain limit. The officers have to decide if they let it go as private package (gift etc.) and let it pass, or apply the strict business rules. So it might be usefull to talk - and if there is a 'personal' letter inside, it helps a lot. I don't like to pay senseless tax - especialy when the way these taxes are given is not consistent - If s.o. buyes. lets say a Picasso painting for several millions he wont pay a single Pfennig ... Transport, Transfer and Tax (TTT :) is a mayor problem for buying stuff for the collection from oversees. Gruss H. P.S.: This is not about tax evadeing in General - I have no problem in paying when I just import anything for business -- Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut HRK