Contraband Kinder Suprise Eggs sales booming online. Kinder Suprise Eggs -- chocolate eggs with tiny do-it-yourself toys inside -- are banned in the US as a choking hazard. Kinder-fans have therefore had to rely on smuggled eggs retailed in "ethnic" grocery stores or on friends returning from abraod. The Internet, though, has managed to put Kinderfetishists in direct touch with supplier abroad, letting them score their sweet sweet contraband without leaving their seats.
Jim MacKenzie began selling the eggs here six months ago via his kinder-eggs .com site and says he lives "comfortably" off his U.S. profits. He won't say what those are but says he has 3,600 customers in his e-mail address book, and has sent as many as 100 cases a day -- 2,400 eggs a day -- in cases priced at $22.95. (Fundraisers get a break: $19 a case). Mr. MacKenzie, a Canadian from Delta, British Columbia, hires extra help at Christmas and Easter to do packing.
In Heidelberg, Germany, where the eggs are known as Kinder Uberraschung, or children's surprise, Linda Oldaker began shipping to the U.S. a year ago, taking orders via her Web site. Ms. Oldaker won't disclose U.S. sales, but she says she had five e-mail orders from the U.S. over a recent two-day period, including one for eight dozen. One day recently, the eBay auction site listed 74 people offering Kinder items, including 200 eggs available for shipping from "our video and convenience store just north of the New York State border."
Sigh. This isn't going to be the year of paper/screen convergence. Maybe not even the decade. Sitting next to Steve Gillmor, I dropped my yellow legal pad onto the floor and said: "Oops. There goes $2500." Absent a digital surface that has the qualities of paper that matter -- including being cheap and disposable -- I see digital ink as sometimes useful but not revolutionary.
I should absolutely open an italian weblog. For now I am posting in both language, and I understand that I am doing a mess. However I lack the time, so I will continue in this way, for now.
