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It's funny because i've been reading the message boards a lot and i see a lot of paranoia with shipping overseas due to
'defect' marks we may get. Which had me thinking of how things used to be...
Back in the day (sounding like an oldtimer) i used to sell on yahoo auctions (it was completely free!) and things were going great.
Then Rosie O'Donnell started going on Oprah and flogging Beanie Babies on a place called ebay. Next thing you know ebay is the place to be. So i had to open an account obviously
Back then were the dark days before Paypal. Although some used Bidpay.. many did not trust this new online world and wanted to send cold hard cash to the seller, or green cashier money orders or simply a normal check. Lots of running to the bank back then and no machine deposits yet in our small town. Direct weekly chats with the bank lady.
That meant waiting for that money to arrive, then waiting a bit so the check could clear, and then ship out whatever you sold.
(a transaction could take forever, imagine that today??) There was a lot more trust back then in those dark days.
But the fun part was when someone from someplace in the world bought your item. Sweet. I'd get an envolope in the mail from Bora Bora or whatever they call it now, or Finland or Brazil with the payment. Then i would ship out and notify the buyer and let him know to please let me know when you receive (because it gave me an idea then how long things take to arrive).
I wanted overseas bidders to win auctions because it was fun.
Today it's all paranoia. Everyone wants stuff now. I received 1 defect last winter because i shipped an oversized 30 lbs box to Singapore...yet i had made sure in auction to not ship overseas, somehow he bid. (He did receive but it took 4+ months believe it or not, plus he was a very nice person but he had to open a case at the last minute to protect himself)
Anyway, as for your original question of where is my interesting country? Well... last winter i did a cleanup of all my old letters received in the mail. I thought i had kept them but can't find right now. Hope they are still in the basement somewhere.
But i do remember, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Hong Kong, Finland, Mexico, Switzerland, France and England, Italy, Greece, Singapore last winter... Only Singapore and France, England in the last 8-10 years. Before that a lot overseas. I will check if i still have all those envelopes from past sales sometime.
Kinda miss the dark days of ebay...
@femmefan1946 wrote:
And for some reason, Robert's Rules of Order several times to Kazhakistan.
And they got the item? Because there is no such country.
@femmefan1946 wrote:Greenland is not exactly Danish.
Greenland (Greenlandic: Kalaallit Nunaat [kaˈlaːɬit ˈnunaːt]) is an autonomous country within the Kingdom of Denmark, located between the Arctic and Atlantic Oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Though physiographically a part of the continent of North America, Greenland has been politically and culturally associated with Europe (specifically Norway and Denmark, the colonial powers, as well as the nearby island of Iceland) for more than a millennium-- Wikipedia.
I was listing some literature about Greenland last night and looked it up.
it IS Danish. Canada has a border dispute about Hans island with Denmark, NOT with Greenland.
The picture shows our Canadian soldiers placing a Canadian flag there, and the second one shows Danes placing their Danish flag on the island.
Not a true country and not that rare I suppose but I finally made a sale to Guam this week. Shipping via USPS, first time I've had to do domestic US postage plus a customs form.
@femmefan1946 wrote:
And for some reason, Robert's Rules of Order several times to Kazhakistan.
No doubt they're trying to figure out how to run a government (or even a city).
Because most of my items appeal to English-speakers only (sewing patterns, historical or otherwise), I don't get a lot of exotic destinations. I have shipped to places like Norway, Greece, Italy and even South Korea, Japan and Russia, but that's about it. I find it interesting to hear where all those stamp people ship.
By the way, I think the winner on this thread is the seller who mentioned she shipped to Réunion. I happen to know quite a bit about that island from my involvement in history generally and costume history in particular. It's a place with an exotic and fascinating history, which has had many names over the centuries.
It used to be called Île Bourbon, after the French Bourbon kings, and was the birthplace of Josephine (Napoleon's wife that is) and her sister, who both had rather sad and tragic personal histories. Napoleon had it renamed Île Napoléon. The British grabbed it briefly during the Napoleonic wars (around 1810) and named it Bourbon again. Then the French were given it back and renamed it Île Bourbon, until the French revolutionaries grabbed France and renamed it Réunion (again), which it has remained since.
I'm also an avid rosarian, and one of the little known but romantic facts about this island is that it was also the birthplace of the gorgeous Bourbon roses, which caused a sensation when they were brought to France. Most appropriately, Josephine had many of the more important Bourbon roses planted in her famous rose garden at Malmaison (which can still be seen today), and had Joseph Redouté catalogue them beautifully in colour drawings (which can still be purchased today in bound form).
The heavily scented and voluptuous Bourbon roses, now loved by rose collectors as antique rose varieties, have been continuously preserved through vegetative propagation exactly as they were in Josephine's time. They have remained in commerce for over 200 years (and are still available today). I have Bourbon roses in my garden, whose parent plants came from that faraway island of Île Bourbon, a.k.a. Réunion, and when I see them blooming, I often think of Josephine strolling in her beautiful rose garden.
Happy thought for a snowbound day...
Exhibit "A", further to the post above -- a picture I took in July with some of my Bourbon roses in a vase (sigh, was it really warm outside once?).
The Bourbons are the deep pink and magenta-rose coloured ones. Sorry I can't post the beautiful scents here, but trust me, they are knockouts!
