Last week, the Eternity II puzzle (which I’ve talked about here and here) went on sale. I can finally wipe up the drool-puddle-of-anticipation that’s been forming on my desk and get to work cracking this nut.

Unfortunately for those of us in the United States, the puzzle is not available here, and there are very few online retailers willing to ship the puzzle to the USA.

But I did track down the puzzle at Hamley’s and placed my order. Their online shopping cart is a little bit crappy (it got confused verifying my non-European billing address), so I had to call them on the phone ( (+44) 800 2802 444) and a very friendly girl with an Irish accent took my order.

I placed the order at noon last Wednesday, and the package was delivered (in Boston, MA) by about 2:00 pm on Friday.

Holy crap.

At first, I thought they must have used an American order-fulfillment location, but the package had international shipping stickers and a return address in the UK, so it seems to be an actual international delivery. Fulfilled in just two days. I’m very very impressed. I had no idea that it was even possible to ship something overseas so quickly.

The puzzle cost £35, plus another £25 for shipping. With today’s lousy exchange rates and the weak dollar, that’s a total of $120. Unfortunately, when I win the $2 million prize, that means I’ll really only be netting $119,999,880.

Bummer.

Anyhow, if any of you American algorithm enthusiasts have been sulking because you can’t get Eternity II here, sulk no more!!