I was looking at potentially purchasing some cards from abroad (Japan) and wondering if people think its worth it at this time. With everything going on in the world and things changing so rapidly at the moment I am just worried if international or even national postal services will be affected. Could end up with the cards being stuck in limbo somewhere?
Has any one else had these thoughts or been affected? For example I assume purchasing cards from Italy at the moment is a bad idea as they are in lock down?
I am wondering about this as well. I have several packages on my way from Japan and a bunch of other countries. Will be interesting to see when and if they show up.
what about selling? I have packages going all over right now, including one to italy…honestly not feeling great about selling outside the US right now.
I just had an argument with my fiance about selling cards. I’m just north of the “hot zone” that is New Rochelle and the petri dish of manhattan. She doesn’t want me even going to the post office and we are on permanent house arrest basically… Needless to say there is such a thing as being too cautious, so I will still sell, but only if it means putting packages directly in a mailbox without going into the post office.
Yeah, on Saturday morning I went to the post office to send something out, but then yesterday decided to just use a collection box around the corner from my place.
Just sharing my own experience form Buyer perspective - since CoVid spread throughout Asia (where I am based) in late Jan / early Feb, I have had no issues receiving packages from both USA and also from Japan.
Japan was a bit slower than usual and the packages from USA have hit usual times (I have one purchased this Monday and targeted for delivery by Thur).
I just found information on this website about Italys postal service though so hopefully this helps put your mind at ease slightly (unless your buyer is in the Lombardy region):
"Can I still get parcels and mail delivered from overseas?
Yes. The Italian post office is operating as normal, and that includes air mail, except for in the Lombardy region – the area worst hit by the outbreak.
Everywhere else, the only change during the quarantine period is that postal workers will now be leaving mail and parcels in hallways rather than delivering them by hand in oder to avoid physical contact.
Amazon deliveries are still arriving as normal as of Tuesday."
@xzini
All necessary land cargo should move normally, flight cargo will have some changes since the packages travel in passenger planes. This was announced by Finnair last week.
I wish that my parents would be this cautious. In a few years we can look back and laugh that we over-prepared, but we can’t look back and say that we under-prepared. I’m no doomsday fearful, and I’m fairly certain that shipping both ways should be fine, but this could/ is unfolding into a real threat against older individuals, especially in highly populated areas that don’t have access to testing kits.
Looks like getting stuff from Japan will still work for me too as Finnair is keeping a flight to Tokyo and some European cities like Frankfurt, London etc. The biggest problem will be getting stuff from the US it seems.
I can only tell you that I´ve sent 5 international parcels out over the last month, 3 are already deemed lost at this point. Just don´t do it and avoid any potential headache.
I’m pretty happy all the recent expensive purchases are already here and currently I’m just waiting for one holo card to arrive from Singapore.
I was planning to make couple purchases from Europe but some sellers have already asked to wait little bit so things calm down & hopefully return to normal, totally willing to do that.
