Review on XL Scratch Off Map Of The World With Flags - 36X24 Wall Art Poster For Travelers by Ryan Arthur

I have ordered plenty of maps over the years but this is the first "scratch off" type. I read the reviews, price shopped, and decided this one was the best probable option if your an adult. for the 1 star "hard to scratch off" folks out there. I'm sure there are some kids ones made like a lottery ticket you get. If you have an ounce of patience, can follow basic instructions that are given, and some common sense this map is pretty darn cool. Mine actually came with the cap/scratch tool missing (thanks to Best Buy not the seller). no problem, I got a small philips head screw driver and gently scraped it back and forth until it broke through the gold layer and gently worked around the state/country I wanted to clear. Takes a little time to get the borders perfect but it looks really good when it is done with a color fading shading that pops. I actually wasn't sure if your supposed to scrape off the outer gold border so I left mine in place and it looks really crisp. a little harder to do but worth it. I tested a full scrape on Gand Caymon because it was so small I couldn't get just the island. didn't look as good so my advice, leave the outter gold border if you can. If you've been to Antarctica I feel sorry for you, I'd hate to scrape off that whole piece, it would take me hours I'm guessin. The paper it is on is quite thick and held the roll shape pretty stubbornly, so I took the paper sheet it came with and carefully reverse rolled it back around the shipping tube for 10 min or so. Doing that got it flat enough to lay out on a hard surface (table) with a small book on each corner so I could start working on it. I saw one picture that someone posted saying it was too hard to scratch off. it looked like they had it on the bed and let their Kid go to town on it with a quarter. great way to wreck your map folks. don't be that guy/gal. I did find that the silver writing and black lines were a bit harder to get off so have a little extra patience on those parts and just scrape over them a few more times until you can feel that the stuff is dislodged. Wipe off the shavings often so you can see what you need to get as you go. The harder to remove black line do make getting crisp edges easier which is a side bonus.Summery: have patience, scrape side to side and don't dig into the paper, and take your time. and you'll have one cool looking map. Now I need to hit more countries because you get a good feel for how few places you've been once you start one of these. 😂