New 'exchange' idea. I think we may have done this, before.

[C2H5OH]

My idea. Find local goodies you can buy locally, that they're not likely to be able to buy locally, and ship it on to the next person on the list. i.e. A sends to B, who sends something to C, until the chain ends with Z sending something to A. I think we may have done this years ago, but I don't recall enough to find out in a search.

Goodies can be anything edible, and only available locally, that's non-perishable, so no special shipping cost. Just throw it in a box with any required packaging to keep bottles from breaking or whatever. Candy. Your local BBQ place's special sauce in a bottle. Shelf-stable Meat Jerky. Things like that.

Cheap is fine, and even preferable, because we don't want to try to one-up each other on how much we will spend. It just has to be something you like, that's only available where you live.

The idea is everyone gets to try something from 'somewhere else', that they wouldn't normally get a chance to try.

Anyone game for this???

[Kat]

Ooooh, I would be up for it. I know some of the produce people at my farmers markets make their own salsa, sauces, jams and such, and a couple of the vendors do jerky.

[C2H5OH]

Ok, there's one.

It's obviously my idea, so I'll have to run it. My idea is for everyone who's in PMs me their shipping address, and I use Google Maps to find the distance everyone is from each other, and maximize the participants' distance from everyone else, and come up with an A>B>C...Z>A round-robin that makes it least likely that they will have available locally whatever they get sent. Then I will PM to each participant the shipping address of whomever they are to send something to. Then it will be up to each of you to find some local goody to send to your assigned recipient. Something you like that won't be available where they are.

For a (US-Centric) example, someone who lives in Vermont will not get assigned as a sender a recipient in New Hampshire. Too high a probability that the NH recipient will probably have already tried the goodie in question. Instead have the VT person send to California, and the CA person send to the NH. If I get world-wide participants, I'll assign 'em for farthest international distance I can manage.

As everyone gets their package, we'll all report back on 'goodie ratings'.

[JimNightshade]

I'm in! But with the geographical distance, I need to think what to send obviously.

[C2H5OH]

Bumping this to hopefully get more participants. It's doable with only three, but I was hoping for more...

[Peeking Duck]

Ooh, I just saw this! I'm in, but with the same geographical concerns as Jim has. I don't mind the cost of mailing OUT, but I hesitate to stick anyone with the cost of mailing to Canada.