Bertin head badge I purchased from a French seller loitered in their postal system until well after the shipping stop and I thought it was a casualty, but unexpectedly it arrived yesterday. Envelope had no customs markings so it may have been treated as normal or gift postage - well, a head badge doesn't take up much room at all. As noted earlier, one sale got canceled due to the nonsense and I still have a pre-25th buy from France worming it's way in this direction - the seller equivocated on how he would send it but I suspect he may have gone the 'gift' route, I didn't ask. I'll have to hold on any further transactions with the Continent for the time being, sellers shipping as gifts is a recipe for problems in the long run and delays and failures are bound to be a given.

We live in interesting times...