I guess I will have to take your word for it. Although that does sound like an awful lot of steps for a couple of $25 coins.
Shipping from sky to me was something around $3, shipping from me to Mitchell was around $6-ish, I think shipping from Mitchell to Lauda will happen in bulk, so there's probably no additional shipping cost for that.
It indeed did take alot of time, mostly due to customs sitting on the package for around a week,
but the price is rather low, considering that shipping from the US to Europe often comes at $25/$50+ without any additional steps for reshipping.
From what I can gather, you are somewhat close to Lauda, and appear to be backing him.
If occasionally talking, mostly about forum related matters, equals being somewhat close and 'backing him', maybe.
I've got cats, you like cats - we're basically BFFs.