The moderator of the Deckel group did pretty much what you are saying, Tom, but only for accessories. I suspect it worked out OK for him, but not all that great. Stuff in Germany isn't cheap... espectially the machines. In fact, I'd hasten to say that the machines are probably *more* expensive over in Germany than the US. Oddly the accessories seem to be a little more reasonable, but buying/shipping in small quantities is a royal PITA. I've had poor luck with it, and am not prepared to do the massive purchase and resell type of operation.
I'm sitting in Heidelberg right now trying to figure out how to return about 250 pounds of stuff. Hmmm, I don't think United Airlines will let me hand-carry that much and they have a 2 bag limit! Crap! Fortunately people from my company fly back and forth all the time, so I'm hoping I can use up that second bag on several flights, using colleagues. What is the technical term in that illicit trade? Mule, I believe!
Of course, that means I have to break the items down to 40 pound units or so... Not always fun.
Anyhow, the larger items are pretty expensive here. Plus, there is always the issue of them being metric which may or may not be a problem for you. As a general rule, however, I think that trying to sell a metric machine in the US is *not* as desireable as selling an inch one. So it becomes a double whammy, triple really... price, shipping, deflated value of metric.
--Alan
[This message has been edited by wrench (edited 08-13-2004).]
