Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Last Visit: 24 Aug 2014 Posts: 2181 Location: Karlsruhe, Germany
Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 4:31 pm Post subject: Customs
My white box was stuck in customs. Luckily, I had to pay turnover tax only. They ask you to choose from a list of item descriptions, and you have to choose a category. I live in Germany, and our form of government is not a republic, but a bureaucracy! So they have a big book, maybe a thousand pages. With millions of entries, literally. Then they ask you to choose a category that fits the item you got. Of course you don't know the rate of duty for each category, but I've had my lucky day and my choice had zero percent tariff rate. Muharharhar.... (Chris, if you want to know the category number, I'll mail it to you). Serves them right, this greedy bunch! _________________ Tome of Treasures - #1 resource for collectible role-playing games.
Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Last Visit: 24 Aug 2014 Posts: 2181 Location: Karlsruhe, Germany
Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2006 7:26 pm Post subject:
Yeah. It was a good show, as usual. When I went there I was asked to present an invoice. I knew that before, so I decided to have forgotten to bring one (I speculated on the guy had to estimate the item's value, which can sometimes happen. This would be good, because he would always appraise the white box below it's true value). Anyway, it didn't help. Then I saw the seller had truthfully filled the green US customs sticker. So I asked if we could agree on that price, just to waste no more time.
The guy still wanted an invoice and offered me to log on to eBay on his computer. I never log into any cash-related website like eBay, Paypal, bank etc. on a machine other than my own. So I talked my way out of it and we agreed on faxing the invoice the other day. (The guy made a funny face and said, 'If you don't send it, we'll come looking for you.' muharharhar... that was when my pokerface didn't hold anymore and I just had to smile.) I chose the item category, and was ready to pay the tax. So then, the guy said: 'Take a seat I'm calculating the tax.' So I sat down and watched him. He took a seat at his desk. He looked at the ceiling, folded his hands and put the tip of his forefingers to his nose and closed his eyes. I thought the guy was waiting for some kind of program to load, when I realized he hadn't even touched anything on his computer yet. The guy just sat there and meditated. I couldn't believe it, but the guy sat there for a full minute. Then he started opening a program and filling out some forms. And so on and so on. After five minutes or so he said, OK, you can pay the tax now. So then some other woman (who had been talking with her colleague about enemas while I waited for the tax dude to calculate the stuff) opened the cash office, filled out yet another paper form and I paid the tax and left.
The whole procedure took thirty minutes or so. Outside I met an elderly guy who was there before at a second desk and had not enough cash to pay, he just returned from the cash machine. He looked at me and said kindly "Well, you need a lot of patience with these people." I agreed, called them a bunch of lazy thieves, we laughed and I left.
So, that was my day at the office. This is no BS, this really happened the way I wrote it. And I am already looking forward to VISIT TO THE CUSTOMS OFFICE PT. III
... and before I forget it, here's the category for placing your dnd stuff and avoiding any custom fees: Warennummer 9504 9090 00 0 _________________ Tome of Treasures - #1 resource for collectible role-playing games.
Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Last Visit: 24 Aug 2014 Posts: 2181 Location: Karlsruhe, Germany
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 8:25 am Post subject:
falstaff wrote:
"Oh God. Did you eat all that acid?"
We just entered the customs office in Barstow at the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold. _________________ Tome of Treasures - #1 resource for collectible role-playing games.
Joined: 11 Sep 2004 Last Visit: 24 Aug 2014 Posts: 2181 Location: Karlsruhe, Germany
Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2006 11:47 pm Post subject:
Yes indeed! It's my first white box. It's in great NM condition and I'm just happy seeing it on the shelve. I haven't read through it, so I can't comment on the content. _________________ Tome of Treasures - #1 resource for collectible role-playing games.
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I never log into any cash-related website like eBay, Paypal, bank etc. on a machine other than my own. So I talked my way out of it and we agreed on faxing the invoice the other day. (The guy made a funny face and said, 'If you don't send it, we'll come looking for you.' muharharhar... that was when my pokerface didn't hold anymore and I just had to smile.) I chose the item category, and was ready to pay the tax. So then, the guy said: 'Take a seat I'm calculating the tax.' So I sat down and watched him. He took a seat at his desk. He looked at the ceiling, folded his hands and put the tip of his forefingers to his nose and closed his eyes. I thought the guy was waiting for some kind of program to load, when I realized he hadn't even touched anything on his computer yet. The guy just sat there and meditated. I couldn't believe it, but the guy sat there for a full minute. Then he started opening a program and filling out some forms. And so on and so on. After five minutes or so he said, OK, you can pay the tax now. So then some other woman (who had been talking with her colleague about enemas while I waited for the tax dude to calculate the stuff) opened the cash office, filled out yet another paper form and I paid the tax and left.
