>To clarify further - as Jim or Bobbi said, "shell shops", meaning TOURIST
>shops, do indeed get almost all of their shells either directly from the
>Philippines, or from commercial shell importers (shell "warehouses") who get
>them from the Philippines, literally by the ton.  However, SPECIMEN shell
>shops and dealers necessarily obtain their shells from much more diverse, and
>much more discriminating sources.
>An amusing note on tourist shop shells - a lady in the local shell club once
>brought to a meeting four postcards she had purchased in tourist shops during
>her travels.  The legends along the bottom edges of the cards read
>respectively as follows:
>Card 1:  "Colorful shells of Florida"
>Card 2:  "Colorful shells of Cape Cod"
>Card 3:  "Colorful shells of Hawaii"
>Card 4:  "Colorful shells of California"
>Above the legend on each card was the exact same full color photograph of a
>selection of colorful, common Philippine shells.
>
>Paul M.
 
 
Paul, That sounds like our wonderful friend Kay Peterson's card collection
that she uses to show her Middle School students as contests.  I also have
sent her some of these strange cards.
        Dan Yoshimoto
 
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Dan & Hiromi Yoshimoto
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