The eBay seller luckily for the OP is in Florida so he wouldn't have to mess with customs if he were to go that route, albeit a lot more expensive.. But I feel exactly what you are saying sapper, a long time ago I bought a world war II Russian uniform, complete from Moscow Russiaand it took 4 months for me to receive it. It started out from the seller packaged in a box he took a picture and showed it to me, when I received it, it was all balled up in a plastic bag with labels and stamps stuck all over it along with four photocopied pictures of my uniform laid out on a table in front of the border police. I guess checking everything to make sure it was in fact legal to leave the country. I will dig out those photocopied pictures they sent and post on the forum when I get home. I kept all the paperwork that was sent with the uniform because I thought it was so neat and strange how different countries customs are. The pictures of my uniform all laid out on the table in front of two customs police in full uniform was just too cool to throw away and I thought added to the history of my uniform