I'm sorry if this isn't the right thread for this (should it maybe be at the Book Enabling thread, perhaps, or the non-Book one?), but, well, I needed to post this and ask for your opinions.

I have recently joined BookMooch and sent a few books. Aside from the fact a guy wanted me to give him two points extra for a book that already cost me two points because of shipping costs to him, there's not been anything *wrong* so far.

But I've just received my first ever mooched book. And that's where things get strange.

I requested a book from a member in Ireland. The book delivery was delayed for about a week and then I received an email on the 6th letting me know the book had been sent the previous day.

Well, I've just received that book. No, it's not how quick it traveled from Ireland to Portugal.

The book arrived in a national postal office envelope with Portuguese stamps!!! From a Portuguese city. And the date on the stamps is September 5th, the date I was told the book was sent.

If the dates didn't look so iffy, I might have think the original envelope suffered some damage and national post office replaced it with new postage, which in itself is far-fetched. But the postage stamp is dated the day the book was supposedly sent. From Ireland. Only not, since it's a Portuguese envelope and Portuguese stamps and Portuguese city in the postage.

Have I just been duped out of a point for making an international request that was mailed from my own country (which would have cost me 1 point only?). Did the person I mooched from traveled to Portugal for some reason and mailed the book from there? And if yes, couldn't she have... oh, I don't know... warned me?

'Cause this is way too strange.

Opinions? Explanations? Do you think I should oh so subtly mention this to her? And how should I go about doing it? Or should I just let it go, accuse the reception of the book and not mooch from them again? Or am I being paranoid?

Edit: As has been pointed out, people from Britain/Ireland do have a tendency to spend vacations in sunny Portugal, so maybe that's the explanation. Either she came here or asked someone who was coming here to mail it...

Maybe I'm being pushy but... would it have hurt them to let me know in the email they sent me that this was going to happen? So I didn't wonder what the heck was going on and made a post about it at Bookobsessed? :lol:

I reckon they probably decided it would cost too much to send from ireland and got someone in Portugal to send a copy to you. Perhaps through another trading site or a shop? :wacko:

I had something similar with a book I mooched from someone in Russia. They accepted the mooch, then a week later I received the book , with no note from an amazon seller. I though it might be for an exchange from someone on here, then I got an email from the person I mooched from asking if I had received it...

Why not just reject the mooch if you don't want to send it?? :shrug:

And I just wanted to say..I love it that you use the expression 'iffy' !!! It amazes me how good your grasp of English is. :kiss:

I need to learn French otherwise my 3 yearold will soon be better then me!!

Might be, except we don't have many online book shops in Portugal that sell English books, for one. And would it be so hard to let me know if that was the case, so I don't get all confused about this? :blink:

And thank you! :blush: That's so sweet of you. I guess it's because of all this English I've been exposed to since learning about the wonders of the Internet, back in those bygone times when I was younger, or with all those movies and TV shows and music in English. A person just learns stuff. Still, there are many a turn of phrase in English that completely baffles me. And some words. Those big words that make me run for a dictionary because they're just so... err... complex.

Of course, writing is one thing, speaking quite another. My accent is atrocious.

Alot of British/Irish people go to Portugal on holiday. It could have been sent to you by a friend or family member visiting the country.

You could always email the person and ask them...or mention it in the book recieved feedback.

Okay, that makes sense. Should have thought about it. I guess I was still reeling from the oddness of it.

I would have just liked for a little mention of it to have been made when the person I mooched from emailed me telling me the book had been sent. I would, if I was going to mail the book from someplace different than expected. Makes for less headaches and WTF feelings...