eBay and International Sale (Was United States Postal Service Blip)

Frequent PhillyCollector readers might recall my investigation of a package sent overseas. I had to find out if the item had left the U.S. so I had to go to the post office branch I used. The postal worker there sent me to our main post office.

Visit to the Main Post Office (30th and Chestnut Streets)

I spoke with a United States postal service supervisor. He informed me that no package takes a month to leave the U.S. If there were a problem with the mailing address or if the postage were insufficient, the package would return to me, the shipper. I do not have the package. I did not receive it back so it must be in Germany. The U.S. postal service cannot track the path of packages outside the U.S.

I informed the buyer of this statement. She responded that only here in the U.S. can the item be checked. There is no similar system in Germany seems to be the gist of her response.


So I now seek information about Customs in Germany. Is there a central location?

The problem is that the order went through eBay. The buyer has a time limit on when she can get her money back from PayPal. I have to check my "rights," as well. This being eBay 2011, I doubt I have any. But I will check and write again.

To be continued ....

UPDATE: International Collector Seeking Belt and/or Dress for Petworks Momoko 03SSor

Dear Momoko fans and owners:

Above is a photo of Petworks' Momoko 03SSor from The East series. Lovely doll, yes? But notice the dress .... If you have that orange dress with its original black belt or just the original black belt for sale or if you see it for sale online, please contact Francesca.

When Momoko 03SSor was in my collection, I had re-named her Francesca. You will find photos of her in earlier posts here on PhillyCollector. Her boyfriend then was Tango Ken. Interesting coincidence about the name, hmmm?

UPDATE: Francesca has found the Momoko dress with its belt on eBay. Yay! Happy ending, yes? Yes. Just goes to show, what happens if we think long and hard enough on our Grail Items.

United States Postal Service Blip

For those collectors in the U.S.A. who ship overseas - help! I've come across my first International shipping problem. Heretofore, my stuff always got where it should be within the expected time. However, I have learned that an item I sent out nearly four weeks ago did not reach its destination. Here is the message I received when I checked the label/receipt number:

Service(s): International Letter

Status: Processed through Sort Facility

Your item was processed through and left our PHILADELPHIA, PA ##### facility on May 26, 2011 at 11:42 pm. The item is currently in transit to the destination. No further information is available for this item.

Shouldn't there be some other message that the item left the country?

I will go to a Post Office tomorrow to ask about this finding, but I am wondering if anyone else has experienced this kind of result. If it helps, the destination was Germany.

Thanks for any feedback. I'll write a follow-up with the information I get from a postal worker tomorrow.

Sincerely,
D7ana aka Dana

Happy Father's Day!

To all the Fathers, Daddys, Dads, Papas, etc.

Happy Father's Day and thanks for all you do and all you don't do.

Sincerely,

A Philly Daughter

Jody, the Country Girl Doll

June must be Accidentally Seventies month. The Sunshine Family, Tuesday Taylor, now Jody, the Country Girl doll have been mentioned so far. Jody was the product of an idealized vision of the American West as shown on popular television programs like Little House on the Prairie and Sara.

Jenny Jones and Baby John were walking down Old Country Road when they came across a quaint building. Lo! It's the barn of Jody's Horse and Farm. Jenny can't resist a peak inside. Oh, so bare. Well, Jody's in a sanitarium, and the Horse ran away. (He got hungry, see.)

Perhaps you are curious about the exterior? Well, here's how the other side looks. The exterior of Jody's barn on her Farm:

I had the Country Kitchen, the Victorian Parlour, the Schoolhouse carrying case, the shown Horse and Farm, and I think the General Store. Had two Jodys as well. (But not the Black one, alas.) Jody was always sick from an overload of saccharine storylines.

For additional photos of the Barn part of Jody's Farm, see this Webshots folder.

Additional readings about Jody and photos of her and her Country Kitchen playset can be found here.

Beauty Queen Tuesday Taylor Triumphant

"Sock-it to me silver boots, red shiny boots, red matte boots, turquoise shiny boots, orange shiny boots, lime shiny boots. Hooo hoooo. Color me happy in boots!"

Beauty Queen Tuesday Taylor wearing a Barbie Fashion Fever halter and miniskirt and Lollipop Girl silver boots.

"At last, at last. Something mine. At last."

Those leftover Lollipop Girl boots pleased someone. They don't really fit the Barbies or the action figure females. Basic and Sunset Tuesday Taylors and Taylor Jones could wear them, but because they have the pliable plastic legs, it is harder to put the boots on and off. Beauty Queen Tuesday Taylor was the only one with the right foot size and feet firm enough to pull on and pull off the Lollipop Girl boots. Now she needs fashions to match ... but that is another story.

New Blog Alert - Celebrity Doll Website - Recalls Older Website, Famous Figures

I was curious about Ms. Leo's Kristi Yamaguchi doll so I did a little research. Playmates created dolls of Ms. Yamaguchi and a few other female ice skaters in 1998. Go, Playmates go, I thought. Seeing some of the faces, I thought ... hmm if I were them, I'd go very far. Like a place where I can hide in plain view ... Sometimes, it must be difficult to recreate 1:1 scale features in 1:6 figures. Not all of the figures are flattering. Eh but some people are just happy to be immortalized in plastic at all. Accuracy might not be as important as having your own action figure or doll.

One of the websites mentioning the Kristi Yamaguchi doll was a NEW doll site called The Celebrity Doll Museum.

This website has a list of many celebrity dolls and action figures. It's a new venture - since 2010 - so they have yet to have photos of all the figures they acknowledge exist. I think it will be fun to see them develop and to send them messages about dolls and action figures they might have missed.

Longtime online doll and action figure collectors will remember Famous Figures. Yes, the website that clued countless collectors into which doll or action figure resembles the star or famous person you needed for your diorama. While Famous Figures does not seem to have been recently updated, it has YEARS of photos of celebrities and dolls and/or action figures who resemble those celebrities. I bring this link forward for any newer DAF collectors.

Warning: the Famous Figures website can be addictive. Happy viewing!

Query: Do you have any favorite celebrity DAFs? Or are you working on a figure of yourself as the next UNDISCOVERED DAF?