I always hear stories about the dangers of buying from WIsh.com, Aliexpress, and recently Temu. I’ve jokingly called them “buyer beware” sites even. Yet people still use them, and there’s just as many positive results as negative. But I’ve also heard about unexplained card charges, data hacks, pyramid-scheme-like behavior, etc. So which of those sites, or other similar sites, is the “safest” if I DID wanna shop there?
Anything from a specialty hobby. I’m a falconer, I don’t think there is a single brick and mortar store in the US for that.
Presumably back in the day it would have been mail order thru specialty magazines? Genuinely curious
I’m not really sure. Falconry in the US mostly stopped after colonial times and didn’t come back until the 1930s or so. The first clubs weren’t formed until early 60s and formal licenses weren’t until the 70s. I’ve seen magazine articles about mail ordering hawks, falcons, and eagles. I think most people made their own equipment and some stuff was sold word of mouth. I do know there was a lot of scouring of old (1600s and earlier) books for diagrams and instructions. I’ll see if one of my books has stories or I’ll ask some of the original members if I can remember.
Here’s a short history on US history: https://www.n-a-f-a.com/page/History
My book from 1976 just says that bells and hoods are “available commercially” so I’m not sure. They did have club magazines going that far back so I’m sure there were ads in those.
Neat, thanks for the thoughtful answer and follow up!