stamps vs buying postage with btc

I've seen some conflicting information around about this so I wanted to ask the board.

in your opinion, is it safer for a vendor to use stamps on their priority mail, or one of those sites where you buy postage with btc?

it seems to me that each method has drawbacks, e.g. priority mail with those $7 stamps looks suspicious and the vendor would have to buy metric fuckloads of stamps which may draw attention to them

but on the flip side buying a label with btc is clearly suspicious as well. why would you need to do that if youre not breaking the law? so in theory a postage site could be an excellent honeypot, or at the very least they could potentially alert the USPS that somebody bought a large number of labels with btc and so on and so forth.

the reason Im asking is because I've gotten a few packs recently that used priority mail stamps and my first reaction was to be alarmed that they would do that.

I would like to know your opinions on the matter because I'd rather order from vendors using btc paid postage if that's determined to be safer.

thanks


Comments


[17 Points] DOXX_R_US:

As a vendor I have always thought that paying for shipping with bitcoin and doing labels that way is really fucking selfish because it is more convenient for the vendor (they don't have to go on stamp runs all the time), but it accomplishes this at the expense of the buyer's OPSEC (nobody wants a bunch of shit being mailed to their house when the postage was paid for with bitcoin.) This is why I used stamps on every single one of several thousand orders. And you know what, every single pack made it. Every last one.

So suck it Stampnik vendors.

But every time I bring this up, other vendors (the ones who vastly prefer their own safety and convenience so much that they dismiss their customers' OPSEC) chew my damn head off like I'm talking shit on who they are at the core of their fucking soul, rather than what I'm actually doing, which is just ripping on them for making shitty choices and being selfish.


[10 Points] mrfloridamolly99:

You're acting like it says "paid with bitcoin" on the postage when paid in bitcoin.

Its marked the same as buying postage from stamps.com completely normal.

Old school stamps and handwritten labels leave room for errors on postage amt or address etc


[3 Points] DNM_FuckFace:

Most of the time post offices turn me away when I try to buy priority stamps and tell me to bring in the package, buy postage at a kiosk, or print it online. I feel like stampnik could be suspicious but it's through shippo which eBay and others use and there are a couple other sites that take btc for postage. I highly doubt when the post office scans the package that it lets them know it was paid with BTC, if the package is being investigated then yeah. Personally I don't think it's selfish using BTC especially with how big cryptocurrencies are becoming. The selfish part is that other vendors solely use stampnik and that's it and don't rotate through different BTC for postage carriers.


[2 Points] gangstahippy:

bitcoin mail blend in well and look llike just about any other legal piece of mail, people trade on forums, now openbazaar, and buy from hundreds if not thousands of bitcoin websites everyday. a package, especially a big one with lots of stamps on it look like something sent by the unibomber, postal employees don't even want to touch that..


[2 Points] Joskins:

See the HumboldtFarms bust for details on the feds profiling a large vendor who used priority mail stamps and tracking stickers.


[1 Points] YarrIBeAPirate:

If a vendor paid in BTC it would be just that extra couple bucks that they wouldnt need to convert to cash.


[1 Points] Vendor-Bubblehash:

Does using stamps get red flagged? Maybe if you're buying 1.5K worth at a time like humboldt farms. But those $6.65 exist because normal people do use them. I mean its not us vendors that are keeping the priority mail stamp program afloat. Maybe we are, but I doubt it because they are sold at most post offices. Also any vendor that isn't a dumbass is buying stamps very far away from where they ship, and are doing what u/doxx_R_Us says about having someone else go in and buy them. I can see the advantages of both stamps and stampnik. If you are doing huge volume, there is no way you should be using stamps like humboldt farms. but if you're sending out just a few packs every few days. Then why not? I think stampnik and other postage for BTC places could be honey pots or are already in the pocket of LE (they most certainly are getting requests for their info) I think a vendor could offer both and let the client decide. So I don't think one or the other is better, well like I said humboldt farms and his 1k + purchases of stamps was not appropriate for his operation. But stamps are probably best for a smaller operation.