Comparing Dates

Hey,

I am trying to compare dates in a sql statement. this is what i have tried:

SELECT * FROM transactions WHERE shippingdate>2004-06-08 AND 
transtype='Sale';

but it returns all rows. When i switch the > with a < it returns 
nothing. I have even tried with todays date and have got the same 
results. So i guess my question is how do i compare two dates? BTW the 
column by the name of shippingdate is a date data type with the same 
format as the dates show above.

Thanks in advance.

-Nick