Ady01. . . my memory is horrid so I may not connect you to things though I do have some recollection to your tale now that I've read through this post. My point is still valid however, books will be your best bet all the way around; you will get far more material from a book (especially the older ones) than you can dream of getting when it comes to today's video niche. When it comes to "bibles" such as the Encyclopedia I mentioned, you can't go wrong; there are hundreds of effects in such a book and you'll more than likely use more than a dozen of them. This is especially true for someone that's showing an interest in a silk effect and will most likely wish to expand on such material in order to create a routine if not a full act. Similarly, the resources for thread work are going to give you information that you will ultimately use; maybe not the week you get the book but eventually you'll see ways to use more than 90% of the techniques and resources such a book offers.
I'm confused when it comes to your situation on getting books & materials in that you can order via Europe or Asia just as easily as you can the U.S. or Canada. Speaking of Canada, here is an awesome resource for you (everyone) that's based in Canada;
Hades Publications produces hundreds of "rare" and rarely spoken of books and manuscripts that have more or less been forgotten -- replaced by material pooped out by young writers of today's era, many of whom never research the material they put out or else they'd give citations to most of these books.
The big reason I'm plugging this company so strongly is that most of the books they offer are dirt cheap (most are less than $25.00). Another viable resource, especially for someone in your position Ady, is
lybrary.com in that 99% of what they offer is in eBook form . . . and yes, we're talking about yesteryear as well as current era titles. This would mean no postage & handling costs nor custom's headaches.
When it comes to your argument of not wanting to get a book from which you might find one or two tricks that you "like" think about something for a second; the average effect that you purchase from a retail site is going to cost between $35.00 and $65.00, the same basic price range for the typical book that's going to give you at least a dozen or so effects (the older the text the more effects you tend to get) and so, if you find 3 or 4 effects that you like and will use the per trick cost drops to around $12.00 + construction materials which are rarely more than another $5.00 to $10.00. The moral of the story being, you always get much more for much less when you have text & resource books.
Another thing I'll "leak" to everyone. . . I'm working on a project with the folks at Wiki that will give magic enthusiasts an amazing sense of secure access to methods, technology and historic data. There are two sites and all going well, they will officially be up and running in around November of this year (and I'll certainly post links and details here). The sites are not "expose" type sites though one of them does explain the workings of certain pieces, but only to a very limited level.
I bring this up because it will be such a boon to people in Ady's situation. It is something I've tried to get numerous forums to commit to but for whatever reason, they've elected to not do such. I'm just grateful that we've found sponsors that can help make this a reality. More will follow!