Yes the composition is him and the face is, but the rest is a mix.
Pressure to authenticate must be huge.
And Iād like to know where these particular Asian millions came from.
2 Likes
Manufacture of millions of washing up bowls/dustpan & brushes/batteries for gizmos, faking it as Duracells.
1 Like
Good of them to give the price per kg
On that pricing, the garment weights 1/10 gram!
I donāt see at at Ā£13.64 now, thoā 
I remember some wag in the Tesco shelf price labelling dept pricing the tiny 2gm packs of saffron at /kg. It wasnāt as much as that hoodie but around Ā£6,000/kg.
Very Hogwarts (probably Gryffindor judging by the lion, though the colour is more Slytherin!!)
5 Likes
Just for you @captainendeavour.
Ā£14.35 and add 3 cheap items - you donāt have to buy multiples of this same item - and with the 5% off itās Ā£13.63.
Type in product number B0CG4BSC46 and check the variants.
Many colour / design variants. All designed to make you look like a prat. But a warm prat 
.
The way to buy it is to look at the background colour. Thatās what you see most of. Then the main accent colour. Ignore the animals, spaceships, stars etc as itās the colours youāll be blanketed in not the shapes.
I select by background colour based on how impervious it is to coffee stains being visible.
If you look for similar and choose amongst sellers thereās a mid-light blue one with dogs with touches of white/grey/black for Ā£10.
No poodles, sorry.
Theyāll all be gone very, very soon
I had a look at them but it cost over Ā£15 to get them delivered hereā¦
You could fly back to UK via Easyjet for less than that, pick one up and then come back homeā¦ if you wear it during the flight, you wonāt need to pay extra for luggage 
3 Likes
Amazon UK has done something in the past month Iām still trying to work out and when I have time will challenge them on.
UK VAT is still deducted and French TVA is still prepaid by Amazon so no La Poste/courier handling charge.
To what were previously low but fair, shipping charges, typically, say, Ā£4.50-through around Ā£7/8 or something around Ā£10 max for quite a few things, so Ā£2/15%-25% over UK ship cost, Amazon seems to be doing the same but suddenly with a hidden extra uplift of their own to whatever would have been the previous level of charge, of about Ā£10 flat on an order to France.
Itās only been happening within past month or so and I havenāt got to the bottom of it yet. Weirdly it seems to depend on which warehouse they decide to ship some particular items from. Customer Services couldnāt answer my question but it just takes business away from Amazon.co.uk. As often this now makes Germany, Spain or Sweden cheaper for an order to France overall now.
I am certain Amazon has never lost money shipping to me in France. Noting that in addition to the previous ship charges that surely covered their actual negotiated ship costs, in the UK these same orders would have qualified for free shipping.
When Iāve worked out more Iāll post but not before June as May is for French tax declaration.
1 Like
That reminds me of something I worked on in the late 1980ās, the AGB National Shopping Monitor. It had a hand held barcode scanner that sat in a cradle and had a rechargeable battery supplied by a very well known large US corporation. We had recurring issues with batteries going dead after only a few months use. They were Eveready PP3 rechargeable batteries (probably NiCad in those days), or at least they were purchased as such. Unfortunately though, they looked identical to the original in all respects except the name printed on them was āEveredyā instead of āEvereadyā 
. Said large US corp had to replace all the batteries, and pay for someone to unbox, replace the battery and rebox all the units we had. Fortunately it was spotted before they went out into the field.
Yes you could send to a UK collection point eg a shop somewhere . Different types of collection points keep for different lengths of time for you to pick up.
Factor in that Amazon is quite likely to deliver 1 day earlier than their āwe sent itā note will say.
ā¦youād probably end up in Rwanda. 
6 Likes
I count myself myself fortunate that I have had minimal exposure to all things H.Potter. I did read a couple of pages of the first book but found the writing pretty poor for adult consumption.
Then, on a 13hr flight Singapore - LHR a Potter film was all that was left of the 5-6 movies on offer. Iād put off watching it but masssively bored, gave it a go.
It had the merit of sending me to fitful sleep. I was very irritated by the lazy scripting that had the girl as the voice of āDeus Ex Machinaā, going into an explanation of what the action and dialogue should have been telling us.
So Iām with @Karenlot in seeing the lion pattern as vaguely regal. Like me 
If you have frends in UK who are prepared to print off labels and stick them to packages, then hand the package to a collection courier, I find that booking a delivery thruā Intertparcel is efficient and economical.
I ordered a seal for my Gaggia coffee machine. The UK distributor for Gaggia parts wanted a total of Ā£18.73 to send it, a Ā£3.50 thin steel ring about 60mm x 3mm thick. They are v. naughty because they charge VAT on Royal Mail services which are exempt from VAT. I keep forgetting to shop them to HMRC.
Iād ordered an A2 cutting mat and a pair of beam deflectors. These and the seal were slipped into the package for the mat. Cost to send that package Ā£9.50 with a service booked on I/parcel - collection from UK address on day and at time to suit the pals.
1 Like
Well to be fair it was intended as a fantasy novel for children.
I found the books quite entertaining - they do get more āadultā (or more āteenagerā) as they progress, I think deliberately in line with the likely age of the readers increasing as the books were released.
The films vary a fair bit in quality - inevitably heavy on special effects, which in the first couple of films now look a bit ropey in line with the capabilities of CGI at the time. HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban is arguably the best of the movies overall.
Although I also found them a bit odd to watch as I was at school with Emma Watsonās dad, so suspension of disbelief was a bit harder.
HP is not everybodyās bottle of sauce, inevitably. But then again there are people who donāt like the original Star Wars trilogy, which is really strange.
2 Likes
Yes, true, which is why I was surprised when my god-daughterās mother - BA Manchester Drama with English - found the books a great read, for herself, not just for her children.
The merchadising of Potter has got pretty much out of hand. I saw some object in C4 that was Potterised - something totally banal - canāt recall - but letās say a watering can. That sort of thing.
Ms Rowling must have a full time job these days working out how to get rid of XS miĀ£Ā£ions.
I would entirely agree with you there. And the post-Potter films (Fantastic Beasts etc) are dire, as are the Disney-produced Star Wars films.
There is an unfortunate tendency to not leave well alone but to seek a fast buck with shoddy derivatives (see also Amazonās horrendous Tolkien pastiche āRings of Powerā series).
She has a foundation and gives a ton of money to charities.
6 Likes
The amount she pays her lawyers for the sheer number of legal threats she sends out on a daily basis will get rid of a chunkā¦ I have seen some of the numbers, and many, many of the letters, over the years.
2 Likes
And weāre on. 
2 Likes