The long winded blues of the never

it sure is!

but it's funny to realise that in the 'good old days', i've managed to ship items that are technically not allowed in certain countries. i've written descriptions of my merch, and obviously customs on the other side have not cared enough to reject any of my parcels. i'm just now finding this out because customs forms are online now and the systems stops me from trying to send things before i manage to print a shipping label.

for example, shipping playing cards into brazil, italy, spain, and certain other countries is prohibited. no written reason as to why, but folks online speculate it's either to eliminate overseas manufacturer competition, to discourage shipping of valuable collectibles, or because of anti-gambling laws.

shipping playing cards into mexico is allowed, though games/card games aren't. but since playing cards and game cards share the same hs tariff code, i still can't ship any there.

shipping playing cards to germany is allowed, but only for wrapped single decks.

shipping printed/illustrated postcards to germany however is not allowed. and another warning pops up to warn you against shipping images of porny, racist, gory, or other sensitive material eg propaganda.

shipping printed/illustrated postcards to new zealand is not allowed, though 'plain postcards' are. not too sure what the difference is there.