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It's My Story.
Sweden.
The trip to Sweden was one of the neatest trips I went on buying pez. Gary Doss informed me that the Pez Pal Mariner had been released & was available only in Sweden. Gary sent me a photo image of the back of the Pez Playworld card. From that information I planned the trip.
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| Mariner with body parts approx $10.00 |
I arrived in Sweden, Booked my car & Found a hotel. My stay was in Stockholm, a very interesting & nice place. Next morning I went to Toysrus. Here's something you may not know, most of the bigger cities in Western Europe, Australia & Sweden have Toysrus. Even Linz/Traun had one. Toysrus is a good place to find Pez dispensers & ask about who the distributor is. In worst case scenarios it is printed on the back of the cards & you can hire a taxi, point at the address & follow him.
After gaining/confirming the distributor address, also realizing the Pez Pal Mariner was not available at Toysrus. I set off for the distributor, he informed me this Pez dispensers was only available on the Ferry from Stockholm to Helsinki. As this trip was only about the Pez Pal Mariner I didn't buy anything from the distributor. Besides they really didn't have much, it was a pretty small operation.
Photos of the Ferry Boat I booked passage on with Silja Ferry Lines in Sweden.
I arrived at Silja Ferry lines & was allowed to board the ferry & go to the gift shop on board the ship. There I met this really wonderful lady who ran things named Tuula. She said we have about 60 or so Pez Pal Mariner available but you have to be on board as a passenger & at sea before I can sell you any. I told her I really needed a lot of them so she checked & said she had 2 pallets of pez pal mariner at the other port. Off I went to buy a ticket. I booked a round trip, in a Tax deductible high end room. It was a room with an exterior window, so a view of the whole trip. This room even had a shower & a TV. Until this trip the idea of being on a large boat out in the middle of a big body of water left me a little uneasy. After this trip I realized it was more like being in a small city that happened to be a boat.
We left port & the first group of Pez dispensers was delivered to the room, where I began tearing them down to just pez dispensers & pez body parts. So they could be bagged for my luggage. I planned to carry half the pez in my luggage & airfreight the rest. Once we arrived in Helsinki, I met with Tuula & used my credit card to pay for the pallets of Pez Pal Mariners that were being loaded. She & I had to call the US credit card company to clear the purchase as it was about $10,000.00. Once all the paperwork was done she had ships personnel, dolly cart it all up to my room. I got a lot of puzzled looks because even though this was one of the good rooms/cabins, the 2 pallets of pez pretty much filled the room. I spent the entire night in the cabin tearing down half of the Pez dispensers into my luggage & down packing the other pez cases. If you down pack pez playworlds correctly 3 cases become 2 cases easy. After down packing, pez cases had to be taped together into 8 cases per for airfreight. When completed I had 3 duffel bags full of loose Pez dispensers & 6 or 8 large packs of pez for airfreight. In the morning we arrived back at Stockholm & I had not even left the boat. Aside from meals, a shower, looking out the window & packing Pez dispensers. I had no time left, including no time for sleep. I left a really good tip for the destroyed cabin & left with the small army of guys with dollies.
Once we arrived at my car, I gave the guys there tip & off they went. I found a cab driver & we discussed the airport & what I needed to accomplish. He decided Cathe (I think it was) was the freight airline I needed. He also decided we needed a total of 2 cabs plus my car to carry all the pez to the airport. Once the 3 cars were loaded he led the way to the airport, where he helped arrange everything with the freight company. He had been very helpful & got a really good tip. After they left & the freight was completed I was left with my pez luggage & one night remaining before my flight.
I booked a room in a hotel near the airport & got a well deserved nights sleep. The trip home was easy peasy. The freight arrived no problem, thanks to my broker in Grand Rapids. The trip was a big success. Then a year later the Pez Pal Mariners showed up in Hungary for liquidation into Russia. Oh well it had been a pretty cool adventure. Bragging rights, great scenery & a boat ride.
What more could a country boy who never dreamed of European travel ask for.
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