The world grows smaller and smaller until it feels like a noose

Over the weekend I participated in a giveaway thread on Bluesky. The idea is that you post some cards you don't want, and you can claim some other cards that were posted that you do want. Kinda like a big group trade sort of thing.

I posted all of the Topps Chrome basketball cards I pulled. It was a dud box with not much I really wanted, and I was happy to give it away if it meant I could get some different cards in the mail.

A lot of the people that contacted me were American. That's cool, I didn't mind shipping cards south of the border. I mean, how much could it cost to ship a few little basketball card in a plain white envelope?

 I am so stupid. Like, really next level stupid.

When I got to Canada Post, they asked me what I was mailing to the US. I said sports cards. That's where my troubles began.

Sending any kind of product to the US is a nightmare. They told me I would need to fill out TWO custom forms for each package and that each one would cost $10 to mail! I told them that couldn't be right, since the cards were worth about a buck or so apiece and I was sending them as gifts. No money at all was involved, and I wasn't even getting anything in return from the specific people I was mailing to. 

It didn't matter. The clerk explained to me that any product going to the US for any reason requires TWO customs forms and is super expensive. Not only that, to fill out one of the two customs forms I had to download an app to my phone called Zonos Pay. I could not mail anything if I did not download that app and use it to fill out half of the forms. I immediately deleted the app off my phone after, because I don't trust anything from the US government.

I mean, it cost me $20 and probably about a total of a half hour to send out two plain white envelopes of worthless cards to the US. I'm never doing that again.

Think about the logic here. I am sending free gifts to the citizens of this country, and their government wants me to pay a privilege of time and money to do so. Huh?

The Canada Post people and I chatted while I filled out the forms. We all agreed that the United States is in a permanent downward spiral and Canadians need to avoid Americans from now on, no matter who they elect. This is daily conversation in Canada.

The crazy thing is that I like Americans! I like the USA. I want to do business with them. I wish more American companies were up here in Canada to compete with our companies to help drive down prices and increase job opportunities for Canadians. Geez, I'm even trying to send free cards to Americans. All of this is so unnecessary and is just bad business.

The world is getting oddly smaller when it shouldn't be. The web promised to bring us together, but instead has driven us apart and most of the business I do is with local companies and people now. It's like the world outside whatever country you're in doesn't exist as much as it used to. It's harder to ship, travel, and communicate with people outside your country. It makes me sad.

I recently signed up as a beta tester for a social media app called Gander. It's basically Bluesky, but for Canadians only. I'm not keen on the idea, but I wanted to see how that would work, as the world is becoming smaller and we may see more country specific social media like this in the future.

Going forward, I'll have to limit all of my trades and purchases to other Canadians. Maybe Europeans, too, but I've rarely met too many involved in the hobby outside of soccer (sometimes hockey!). But it's just too much trouble to do business with the United States these days, and even if the situation improves it will never truly be as good as it once was.

On another related note, I recently got back onto my Sportscardforum account. I hadn't used it in almost a decade. I looked at the signup date and it was from 2006. Wow! So much time has passed. Poor, young Jeremy. So many things I wish I could warn you about.