Genuinely I kid you not, I know of a bike shop owner who told me directly that he used to visit Japan regularly and on his return trips he packed NOS parts for a classic Honda step through into his luggage...he started with nothing and he now has the fully restored bike sat in pride of place in his showroom ...thats what I call air miles!!
A couple of years ago I was restoring a 2T Harley Aermacchi 350sx dirt bike, the clutch basket needed replacing and I looked everywhere...long story short it took me ages to locate a NOS basket but I found one in the US.
A close friend of mine was coming over for a meeting in Europe so I asked him if he would mind bringing it over, he was happy to help.
He was running late for his plane and missed the deadline for luggage check and had to opt for hand luggage only, his wife took his luggage home....you think you have guessed the rest of the story right?
Wrong, the friend was so diligent he even decided to give up some of his precious hand luggage space for my new clutch.
The problem is airline security does not like big oily angry looking lumps of aluminium, so it was confiscated at JFK and sent off for disposal ...and ultimately the crusher!!
So many morals to this true story but the standout is probably - don't mess around with two stroke Harley's!