American ordering from Europe

[cfreud]

Greetings all,
One of my favorite tobaccos is Peter Hernreich's Curly Block, the gigantic log form of the tobacco, NOT the twists. When SP.com had it in I ordered one log, smoked half of it and loved it. Living in rural Colorado, 100 miles and two big mountain passes from Denver, I use the web to order pipe tobacco. I peruse all the common sites, and some not so common, but cannot find the block form of this tobacco except for at the Peter Hernreich site in Europe.
So the questions are a) would PH be able to ship to me here in Colorado, given the EU's rules and regs? and b) Aside from paying duties and taxes, is it legal for me to order tobacco from Europe?
All help is appreciated.

 

[tkcolo]

Don't know, but hello from Granby! And PH curly block is my favorite. Make sure to put your name on the list at SP. I've ordered it from them twice in the past year.

 

[cfreud]

Greetings from Vail. And I am on the sp.com notification system. Great Colorado minds think alike.

 

[georgebmcclelland]

As far as I can tell from some of my attempts to get my favorite UK and Euro tobaccos, I believe the short answer is no, most European or UK sites will not ship to the US. I remember reading a disclaimer on one site which stated that they are not allowed to accept credit card payments from the US on tobacco in any form. Perhaps if you can manage to contact some of the folks in charge of the sites you are looking at, it may be possible that you could work something out by sending them a check or cash. Not sure, though, it would definitely depend on the site and their policies, and I haven't even tried anything and don't take my word on it. I was born in the UK before my family emigrated to America 20 years ago, and I've thought of asking some relatives to send me some tobacco, but I'm planning a trip out there soon so I'm just gonna stock up and mail a bunch to myself!

 

[morgansteele]

I order pipe tobacco from: https://pfeifendepot.de

I order cigars from: http://rauchr.de
No issues to date. But, I fear that my ability to order from them will be short-lived. Order now.
Edit: And, I've used American Express.

 

[georgebmcclelland]

Okay, first, I'm changing my short answer from "no" to "mostly not". Now, I'm pulling in to the pfeifendepot on the pfeifentrain to browse their pfeifentobak pfeifenchoices.

 

[morgansteele]

Now, I'm pulling in to the pfeifendepot on the pfeifentrain to browse their pfeifentobak pfeifenchoices.

You will have a pfeifen good time. Lots of goodies to choose from.

 

[woodsroad]

I recently received a whompin’ big order of HU from Pfeifendepot. No pfeifenproblems.

 

[seldom]

Unfortunately you are correct that Peter Heinrich's doesn't ship to the USA. From their page:

We deliver worldwide with some restrictions*!
Individual custom import regulations have to be clarified by the customer. Possible custom duties have to be carried by the customer. The customer bear the possible risk of a confiscation of the ordered product by the customs.
* We not ship any kind of tobacco products to the USA

Shoot. I guess I better stock up before I move back to the states from Germany! Their shipping within Germany has always been fast and they've always included extra goodies with orders I've placed.

 

[PaulTheScandinavian]

Hope the good old Germans will keep up theme good work,as our last chance.Blessings to them.

 

[georgebmcclelland]

Pfeifendepot is pretty pfeifencool. I just noticed that they offer exactly 666 tobacco products. I'm like heck-pfeifen-yeah, let's pfeifenworship the pfeifendevil!

 

[cajomu]

About a year ago I researched whether it is legal for a consumer to order tobacco from sellers in other countries for delivery in the U.S. As best as I could determine based on the relevant regulations (which are ambiguous) and a couple of conversations with officials from BATFE and U.S. Customs (who were not especially helpful), the probable answer is "no," unless you are a license importer. Moreover, the fact that some foreign sellers will send it to you does not mean it's legal, since the relevant laws and regs don't apply to them, just to the importer. However, whether you could get in trouble for doing it is another matter and, based on the fact that many people do it without issue, it sounds unlikely.

 

[swampgrizzly]

I ordered twice this year from https://www.pfeifendepot.de. Great place to find tobaccos nornally out of stock in the USA. Both orders took 10 days from order date to delivery in South Louisiana. You do get an order acknowledgement once your payment goes through via email in German as I recollect, but you can figure out what it's about. You can see the status of fulfilling your order by checking your account info on their web site. They're not the greatest with providing you with carrier tracking info. But if you send a follow up email they will provide it. DHL Global Mail has been the overseas carrier and USPS the local delivery carrier. I have no reservations about continuing to order with them for tobaccos not sold by USA retailers or always out of stock in USA retailers.