Man Joachim,
25% that really sucks! I guess I'm lucky to live in the same country as albion.

Jeremy

Up here in Canada we don't have customs duties for stuff from the U.S.A. anymore. BUT we do have to pay Federal and Provincial sales taxes as we do for anything bought here. ( Occasionally something slips through without getting dinged by Canada customs. )

Something like 15 1/ 2 % : You get taxed 7% by the Feds and then get taxed on the tax by the Province of Québec 7 % so it ends up being more than 14%.

The good part is that the Canadian dollar is now worth .85 cents American, a couple of years ago it was only .60 cents American: That meant that a $ 1000 dollars American Albion sword would have cost me close to $ 2000 Canadian when adding in the shipping and tax, today my Tritonia purchase will cost be about $ 1200 Canadian.

You guys in Europe can maybe put in your orders " officially " at the European distributor and then still " unofficially " contact Mike anyway if it's making you feel lonely and bug him about your order or send him gift certificates for Captain Morgan that he can buy locally. ( Hmmmmm ...... maybe a good idea. :idea: :p :lol: )

Talk about being lucky in regards to shipping or acquisition accessibility, here I am in the rather far western suburbs of Chicago, 17 miles from an internet sword distributer site who happens to carry a few Albions. Though I do not have any Albions "yet", it is just a matter of time and the "Thegn" will probably be my first one. Ya know, I should have been among the wealthy! :lol: As I have a wonderful appreciation for the finer things and more than willing to pay the extra money it costs to buy true quality. :lol: My God all the custom work I'd be having done!

In all seriousness, you get what you pay for, I have a friend who is very well to do and from a lot of money, can't part with a buck, to me life without passion just is not worth living. Call it envy or whatever, but if I were in his status I sure would not be still waiting to buy my first Albion, that's for damn sure! I'd love to be on the list for the Albion Grosse Messer, boy and howdy would I ever!!! Gonna be a thing of absolute beauty and supreme quality!

I am looking forward to seeing photographs of other members acquisitions of these items and celebrate with them as well as congratulate them on money well spent on something beautiful in life!

Sincerely,

Bob

Joachim and Howie and everyone else,
Please be careful that you don't quote many, many posts in your own responses. People have to look past many lines of text they've already read to find the 2 or 3 new lines.

I'm going to edit down text in your posts so it only quotes the most recent post you reference.

The flow of business and the maturing of a company is certainly interesting to watch. Its unfortunate that delays have come along. It will be interesting to see how Albion overcomes them.

One thing that I really respect about Albion is that they're constantly putting out new products throughout every year. That takes a lot of work and effort, and inevitably some delays will be involved. Many sword companies, especially smaller ones, might release two or three new weapons in a year, along with making the swords or other weapons that they already have for sale. Consequently, they will have little or no delays with orders, since they aren't trying to develop new weapons. Look at the fall and winter of 2005 alone for Albion and Peter. They released the Agincourt, the Allectus Mainz Gladius, the Pedite Pompeii Gladius, the Aquilifer Fulham Gladius, the Poitiers, the Talhoffer, the Bayeux, the Thegn, the Reeve, the Hospitaller, the Senlac, and the Sword of St. Maurice of Turin. That's 12 swords in the fall and winter alone, a staggering and downright phenomenal increase to their Next Generation/Museum lines. Granted, the shipping for some items has been slow in some cases, but given the number of new swords that Albion's released in 2005 alone, these delays are understandable.

What you said is very true Craig, that is a huge list of swords. But one of my personal pet peeves and this is also one of my character defects as well, is that I am one who gets quite disgruntled by delays and am therefore reluctant to engage into something (hypothetical, whatever it may be) where the element of a delay is likely to happen.

Certainly, this is an area where I need to work on myself and grow, but all the same it is a deterent to me.

When I purchase something, I expect it in a timely fashion, I am not trying to be self righteous, I am only stating this is the way I am.

Definitely it is a monumental task to release that many different kinds of swords, I fully realize that.

Sincerely,

Bob