Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: Appa on May 24, 2012, 06:52 am
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I want to talk a little about how sketchy it can feel to receive packages from overseas. For those of us who rarely receive any other mail (which is all domestic), suddenly having an influx of international packages is very uncomfortable. Some people try to combat this by only ordering domestic, but this often leaves out a few of the best vendors in many categories. Thus I propose the opposite: ordering a fuck-ton of crap from all over the world.
There are a lot of angles here, so I'll just outline a few I've thought up while writing this post:
-Develop an international hobby, like stamp-collecting. Join a couple forums, find a few people from other countries, and make some trades or whatever is applicable to the hobby you choose.
-Buy shit. Go on eBay and purchase something that you want from someone who ships from afar. Make it somewhat small so it'll be in an SR-like package.
-Subscribe to foreign magazines. This could be pretty good if you find magazines related to your interests and written in your language(s). I'm not really sure how to do this, so feel free to chime in with suggestions. I guess you could get things written in other languages as well, or more image-focused publications.
-Find a pen pal. Exchange letters with someone who has different customs than you. I bet there are a few websites to find people for this.
-Get on some junk mail lists. This one could be kind of dumb, you may get flooded with stupid mail.
Your mailperson, if they notice at all, will quickly get used to the idea that you get a lot of international mail. A lot of it is clearly from legitimate businesses, some of it is obviously personal, so you're just some cultured person or whatever. Well-packaged SR shipments should slip right through.
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I want to talk a little about how sketchy it can feel to receive packages from overseas. For those of us who rarely receive any other mail (which is all domestic), suddenly having an influx of international packages is very uncomfortable. Some people try to combat this by only ordering domestic, but this often leaves out a few of the best vendors in many categories. Thus I propose the opposite: ordering a fuck-ton of crap from all over the world.
There are a lot of angles here, so I'll just outline a few I've thought up while writing this post:
-Develop an international hobby, like stamp-collecting. Join a couple forums, find a few people from other countries, and make some trades or whatever is applicable to the hobby you choose.
-Buy shit. Go on eBay and purchase something that you want from someone who ships from afar. Make it somewhat small so it'll be in an SR-like package.
-Subscribe to foreign magazines. This could be pretty good if you find magazines related to your interests and written in your language(s). I'm not really sure how to do this, so feel free to chime in with suggestions. I guess you could get things written in other languages as well, or more image-focused publications.
-Find a pen pal. Exchange letters with someone who has different customs than you. I bet there are a few websites to find people for this.
-Get on some junk mail lists. This one could be kind of dumb, you may get flooded with stupid mail.
Your mailperson, if they notice at all, will quickly get used to the idea that you get a lot of international mail. A lot of it is clearly from legitimate businesses, some of it is obviously personal, so you're just some cultured person or whatever. Well-packaged SR shipments should slip right through.
I don't think the mailperson actually has time or inclination to analyze what kinds of packages/mail are coming to individual boxes. Maybe only if something REALLY stands out, but really I think customs is the only thing you should worry about. By the time it gets to the mailperson (damn we're politically correct around here), it's 99% of the way there. If I was a mailperson, I wouldn't give a shit what people send. If it was drugs, and I was sure it was drugs, I might pocket them, but other than that, no way I could be bothered with all the hassle that must come with reporting a package for my shitty wage.
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Another thing you can do, which I've considered, is setting up a fake charitable organization website and claim to do business (of some sort) in the same locales from which my packages are sent. Then, inform my mail office that I'm operating a non-profit from my home, give them the name of it, and then have all of my SR (and other) shipments sent to the non-profit's name and NOT my name.
In theory, your idea does work, but mailmen rarely pay any notice unless they're postal inspectors and the package has been brought to their attention for some reason or another. What do they know? Maybe you have a relative studying/living abroad?
Another thing to note is the expense of international post, and the consequent increases in prices associated with receiving publications and things that can be mailed from abroad (since they have to compensate for the added delivery cost.)
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Yeah, I know that the mailperson isn't usually the person who leads to a bust, but I've read more than one case where it was the mail deliverer who noticed something was odd and reported it to their superiors. We all know if WE were carrying the mail, we wouldn't report suspicious packages, but sadly not everyone thinks this way. My suggestions might not offer much security, but it might!
And yes, I guess the cost of all these international shipments could be somewhat prohibitive for a lot of people.
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speaking with absolutely no experience in the field, I imagine given the volume of post that is dealt with, I doubt anyone pays much attention to the country of origin when it reaches the domestic country. I'm more concerned about the postman (I recognise, and apologise for, the potential offense my unPCness may cause but I have never heard someone in that line of work be referred to as a 'postperson' before) him/herself (better?) cottoning on and taking it as I'm pretty sure that my postman took some goodies I sent back from Amsterdam, but that might just have been the typical assumption of 'hand addressed jiffy bag, with a dvd in it and being sent from Amsterdam probably has weed in it'.......speaking from experience though we get a lot of legit packages and parcels in the post most days so I've not had a problem with anything else so far (that's only EU->UK though)