I Feel Like A Spy/Batch 10
I have mentioned previously that I bought three editions of the Great African Films series (Volumes 2, 3 and 4) and being a completist knew that I would need to track down copies of 1 and 5.
I’d set up eBay search alerts, but all that was coming up were copies for around £30 - £50, plus p&p. That was rather more than I wanted to pay at this stage.
Finally, I thought of properly checking ArtMattan’s website. (I’d already had a quick look, seen that they had other titles, then put it to the back of my mind.) A sensible trawl through their site later and I realised that I could actually cross off another 13 African countries simply by buying some more of their titles. This was particularly pleasing as their titles are only $9.95 if purchased directly, which is rather better than £30-£50.
The problem was shipping. And taxes. And import fees. Buying things internationally used to be quite simple; the last few years have changed that. Their website’s checkout informed me that ArtMattan no longer ship overseas, which was going to be a problem.
You know how on the news you occasionally see one of those stories about someone playing the system to save money? Specifically, in this case, a traveller saving a fortune by travelling even further than they’d intended to in the first place? Instead of flying Manchester to New York, for instance, they’d fly Manchester -> Dublin -> Copenhagen -> Prague -> Oslo -> New York and it would only cost £100. True, it would take a little longer than the direct 8/9 hour flight, but what it would take in time it would more than save in money.
I only needed to go to a shop in Upper Manhattan. For maybe half an hour. I have a week off in May. If I could buy 13 titles at $9.95 each and then pick them up by hand, I’d avoid import duties, VAT, postage, packaging, the works. Theoretically, it would save money, depending on the flights.
For once (clearly not being employed by Big Air) Copilot talked me out of it. As did ChatGPT. They both found routes that would make it almost financially feasible (roughly £250 in total), but the journey out would take four days, and the journey back would take three, most of that time spent sitting in airports waiting for flights at ungodly hours. They both went to pains to tell me that a single missed connection would also ruin everything because these would not be refundable flights. Copilot suggested I email ArtMattan instead, because that was more sensible.
ArtMattan very nicely replied to say that they wouldn’t make an exception to their overseas posting rule just because I’m me, but they did suggest some kind of postal forwarding service.
I have heard of postal forwarding services but know very little about them, so naturally I turned to Copilot. Within minutes (there’s no messing around thanks to Copilot’s enabling) I had procured the services of Stackry, an international mail forwarding service based in New Hampshire. I now have an American address. I am an international man of mystery. And packages.
To explain it in brief: I order stuff to my American address; the stuff is sent to Stackry; Stackry keep the stuff for a bit in case I want to add more stuff to it; Stackry sends it on to me. All of this makes me feel a bit like a spy. A spy whose business is shiny discs, not microfilms. So not at all like a spy really. But it feels exotic to me, and that’s what counts.
Thanks to a bonus from work I knew I had the money, so I therefore put in a big order with ArtMattan (Batch 10, if you’re keeping track) because there’s no point paying postage for multiple items when you can pay it for one. ArtMattan sent the discs to Stackry who are in the process of sending them on to me. So far the p&p side of this has cost £35. The discs cost around £92. This is somewhat better than the £30-£50 each they’d have cost on eBay. And the £35 shipping seems to have also included taxes, because that was all I was charged. (I should probably shout out "ker-ching" or similar.)
I still feel a bit like a spy. And I now have a secret address. Okay, it’s not remotely secret (otherwise I'd never get any post) and I don’t really feel like a spy, but it’s more exciting than my usual postal arrangements. And something tells me this may come in handy later on, even if it’s only when Barnes & Noble have a sale.
Batch Ten — Countries Acquired
Bangladesh Made in Bangladesh (2019)
Barbados Barrow, Freedom Fighter (2016)
Cameroon Minga and the Broken Spoon (2019)
Cape Verde Cape Verde, My Love (2007)
Dominican Republic Sugar Cane Malice (2021)
Ethiopia Bilatena, The Golden Child (2014)
Ghana No Time To Die (2006)
Kenya Masai, The Rain Warriors (2005)
Malawi Seasons of a Life (2008)
Mali Faraw! (1997)
Mauritius The Cathedral (2006)
Mozambique Nelio's Story (1997)
Tunisia A Son (2019)
Outlay this batch: £135.36
Total outlay so far: £681.73
Total countries acquired: 62
Cost per country so far: £11.00
Countries Remaining: 92