Child's Gift to Germany by Tuesday! HOPE me, Mefites!!

You know...piping back in to say that if I had an Esty shop with fun kiddo stuff and a buyer contacted me to ask if I'd deliver one of my products to a local address, I'd consider doing that for an added fee, no problem. It's a longshot on many levels, but couldn't hurt to do a quick search of Etsy sellers in the same town.

I am in the US and every year I choose either German Amazon or a German Etsy seller to purchase children's gifts in Germany and have them shipped within country. It always works. It is sometimes a challenge because I don't speak German, but I muddle through it with online translation tools like Babelfish. Given that whatever you order will have go be delivered overnight on Monday? Well that's another story and I don't know German shipping options for that. Maybe Amazon has something. Do you speak German? Consider calling a higher-end store in the same town as the child and seeing if they'll do a delivery.

thanks elizardbits, we do have a amazon.co.uk but none of the items offer a next day delivery option.... (kairab's primary partner here)

Yes, or try calling toy stores in the largest nearby city to where you want it delivered and say "guten tag, sprechen sie englisch" and go from there.

Amazon is really the best way to do this, as it doesn't care where you live, as long as you live in a country where it normally has a presence. I have a dozen addresses on my Amazon account in two different countries and have shipped things every which way. Having said that, you're not going to have much luck with Amazon this week, as the employees at their shipping warehouses in Germany are fighting for a union contract and http://www.spiegel.de/wirtschaft/unternehmen/amazon-mitarbeiter-in-leipzig-und-bad-hersfeld-streiken-drei-tage-a-923256.html Even if they go back to work on Monday, there is going to be one hell of a backlog. But yes -- in future, best do it with Amazon. I've never had any problems. You can pay for express shipping and it will often be there the following day. I think the idea of finding a local store in the child's hometown and calling them is also a good approach if you are desperate. You can even try speaking English, more and more Germans speak decent English ;-)

I sent gifts to friends in the NL using amazon.UK but I don't remember how long it took.

Thanks so much people for your kind thoughts - and the mention of a strike on www.amazon.de - after some considerable searching it seems that www.toysrus.de will do the job: For an extra €5 they offer next-day delivery. So hopefully Bob The Builder and cohorts [cahoots] are now on their way to my nephew, subject to final confirmation of arrival. Will update with news of outcome ...