I am wondering if anyone can advise me from past experience on the best way from now to grow my fleets and get what I want.

I'm looking at the new wave of ships like the Spanish and want to get some of the older packs like Victory and Constitution.
At least 12 various ships in total depending on availability.

The retailers I have spoken to here all give the impression it is way too hard for them to do.

If I order overseas from the likes of The Anchorage store for example - is there a magic number of ships or dollars to spend to make the cost of postage viable.
Is it best to make one large purchase or several smaller ones.
Do customs also then want to add to the cost of product that is hard to buy here and effectively drive the price up further without me knowing until they get here.

or Should I just buy what ships I can track down locally new and/or secondhand and repaint, reflag and rename to to the ships I want and then
the hassle of printing up new ship card and mats and hope eventually the new stuff does make its way down here.

I really wish I could just pop down to a local shop and spend all my money.