Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: Meerkovo on May 15, 2013, 02:07 am
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Hi, whilst reading a thread a few moments ago, something sparked in my head in regards to shipping and shipping safely.
Although the thread was mainly directed at the US postal system, I believe the theory is the same, so I was looking at the Royal Mail (UK Postal Service) and noticed that they sell pre-paid envelopes.
Seeing as you wont have to attach any stamps or labels bought from over the counter, would this be for example considered as mail looking as business like as possible? In other words, would this be a somewhat safe thing to do...
Please let me know your thoughts.
Cheers
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Totally depends on how you can get away paying for them anonymously. The envelope no doubt has a serial number which can be tracked back to a sale...
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That is precisely the issue with pre-paid postage/envelopes, paying for them anonymously.
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Guys although I do appreciate the feedback, however I dont feel satisfied that my question has been answered, perhaps it would be nice to get some feedback from a UK vendor, any thoughts please PM or reply here on the thread,
Cheers
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You question has indeed been answered, you just don't know it yet.
If you can pay for them anonymously, then yes it's an incredibly good way for your shipments to look as "business" as they can.
Can you pay for them anonymously? Or will you get busted with the first shipment that gets intercepted and serial number traced back to you?:)
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Hello mate, I perfectly, almost everything legal or illegal I use cash anyway. So to certain degree I know thats pretty safe, but my main question was
"would this be for example considered as mail looking as business like as possible"
From what I see and know when I receive mail companies they do print the labels however I think they have an account with the postal system and it runs up the bill for each letter that goes out, you get the idea...
This on the other hand is a bit different I would say.
Cheers
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Aprroximately 20, all of them made it in some fashion, except 1, but that was my fault. Basically every package has gotten here, except 2: The first was 3 grams of MXE which I provided the wrong address because I had just purchased a UPS mailbox and didn't know how to properly write the address; The second was 5 stamps of H which the vendor kindly remailed out (even though I may have made the same mistake in giving him an improper address), and I did get that one. So far, only 1, and it was my fault. Plus, the vendor offered me a discount on my next purchase.
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^
Well, she's pretty high :)
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ROFL @HighGirl
Cmon man, when I have something useful to say I do my best to get it right, why can't some people just stop being lazy and tell me an opinion, oh well not to worry, I will continue to do more research and guess thread can be closed!
Cheers anyways guys
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ROFL @HighGirl
Cmon man, when I have something useful to say I do my best to get it right, why can't some people just stop being lazy and tell me an opinion, oh well not to worry, I will continue to do more research and guess thread can be closed!
Cheers anyways guys
Prepaid envelopes can be bought with cash in-store from some post offices but not all will stock them. The concern is they are only for first or second class mail within the UK so unsuitable for international deliveries since you can't apply more stamps onto the envelope to top it up as when a serial number is scanned on the envelope, it ignores all other postage marks around it.
Packs of C5 sized envelopes you can usually purchase around 100 of them for £95 or around that figure. They come in prepackaged amounts so you can't buy 1 at a time really. As for how they track the individual envelope I don't know, they scan the barcode on the exterior packaging when you pay for them but as far as I know, the barcode on the exterior only indicates the product and price of the item and is the same across all of the other packs.
Now, each envelope does have a unique number which is stored by Royal Mail so it may only be used once, but I can't tell you if they know precisely which shop has which envelope or whether they merely package the envelopes into a bundle and sell the bundles off not knowing which envelope numbers are inside.
For around £70 you can get 100 of the standard size business mail envelopes with the windows in them, prepaid first class. Again they have individual numbers for prepaid postage but come part and parcel of a sealed bundle.
Having said all that however - I have received mail in the past which haven't been franked but look like prepaid envelopes so I may be wrong, but the products I buy certainly contain serial numbers.
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StExo you generally have nice inputs and maybe I agree with you a little here. Im guessing open front will make it look as business-like as it can be. However if I buy them in packs of 100 like you suggested doubt they will scan each individual envelope and yes I wanted them for UK only to start with, then we will see.
Great another question and topic answered for me, thanks to all for input
Cheers
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@StExo actually one more thing, do you perhaps know if Royal Mail allows you to buy online postage with prepaid credit card, and if so would you suggest it?
And royal mail website when it comes to tracking packages, will it arise any suspicion over time?
Cheers
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StExo you generally have nice inputs and maybe I agree with you a little here. Im guessing open front will make it look as business-like as it can be. However if I buy them in packs of 100 like you suggested doubt they will scan each individual envelope and yes I wanted them for UK only to start with, then we will see.
Great another question and topic answered for me, thanks to all for input
Cheers
You're welcome :)
@StExo actually one more thing, do you perhaps know if Royal Mail allows you to buy online postage with prepaid credit card, and if so would you suggest it?
And royal mail website when it comes to tracking packages, will it arise any suspicion over time?
Cheers
I wouldn't recommend it no. Purchasing it online is then another area of risk. For example, you then have to consider is how you acquired the card truly anonymous? Also, printing out the postage yourself then gives rise to the risk that printers which encode their number onto the paper could be potentially incriminating against you if a package were intercepted. Some vendors have had close run ins with the law whereby they sent a package and LEA have returned and arrested them but released without charge, but if your unique printer code matches the microscopic dots on the paper then that's significant evidence against you. Stick to prepaid stuff or stamps.
As for tracking packages, it's highly unlikely that'll be suspicious. Hundreds of thousands of recorded deliveries are made per day and equally, the tracking feature will receive hundreds of thousands of hits every day. I can't see why that'd cause suspicion, but as always, use a VPN at least to connect (assuming it's a good one which doesn't keep logs, there are a few good ones on the market, here's a quick list: http://anonymitywiki.org/best-anonymous-vpn-list/).
Think of it this way, Royal Mail process a huge amount of mail and is the most accurate and timely postal system on the planet, just don't make yourself stand out and you won't have a problem! The biggest risk for domestic shipping is being caught with anything illegal in your possession at home or in your car, or of course if one of your buyers are LEA gathering intel trying to hunt you down. Either way, there are some big vendors on this site so don't make yourself an easy target and you won't have too many issues.
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@StExo
of course another good point, most things said here are common sense however when dealing with a sensitive issue as such, and ie hence the Subject lol, it helps to have some assurance to know that your heading in the right direction. But I do know that printers leave their fingerprints also, but I was thinking of getting a bad ass printer from like a big store or buy/sell market place fully paid IN CASH.
90% of all my expenses are paid in CASH, and a bit paranoid by nature, don't like having my name or details logged, recorded anywhere. So im thinking if I send someone to get that printer for me in CASH I wont even have to worry about CCTV.
And as for getting caught in car, trust me matey, roadside search NEVER, they would need to take my whole car apart to maybe have a shot at finding as they say, something I shouldn't be having. I am still new to SR but somewhat a veteran to the game.
If only I could offer a service here on SR to UK people, to have their car professionally modified to make a space for stashing. But this will bring a whole new load of security issues.
Cheers