much easier to track locations, and cross reference them with other info to determine where to look for sources/customers
I have to second this. The most important thing we want you to report to the board is 1) it arrived 2) how long it took and 3) whether it looks as though you got legit product.
I used to do a lot of ordering (strictly personal-use quantities) of non-gear type drugs (narcotics) from foreign pharmacies when it was a lot easier, and safer, to get controlled substances from overseas without risk of jail. And the advice we used to give was that any information that might be used to establish a pattern, or to help the feds identify packages that might have interesting things in them was considered taboo to discuss openly.
Especially (of course) things like geographical location of shipper and/or receiver, but also such details as method of shipping (e.g. UPS vs USPS vs Fedex etc.) and type of packaging and packing material. That includes anything like "the package rattled when I shook it" or any other physical description. I think days of the week when shipped and received is a small detail but still one probably best not specified in board posts.
Unless the feds change how they've been doing things for years, you're mostly looking at not a risk of jail, but of the possibility of losing several hundred dollars worth of gear if the package gets opened and the contents seized. I've had it happen several times over the past decade or two and believe me, it leads to much gnashing of teeth and rending of clothes, the idea of your hard-earned dollars ending up in an incinerator somewhere.
I don't know if they're still operating under these guidelines, but for years the feds operated under a policy that if they intercepted a package containing legend or controlled drugs, they would simply seize the contents and put a letter in the package telling you the contents were seized and why, and telling you the contents will be destroyed if you don't file a protest within X number of days.
Of course if you got one of those letters, called on the drug boards "love letters" back then, you'd be a damned fool to actually protest the destruction of the stuff. You'd be admitting intended possession and that would make a very difficult criminal case much harder to prove. Again I don't know that they're still operating under those guidelines, but they must be or else instead of reading about people just getting their stuff seized, we'd be reading horror stories of controlled deliveries resulting in arrests. If that was happening we'd hear about it pretty quick because the news would spread like wildfire.
And obviously the quantity of contraband would probably have an effect on what they do. They tend to not give a rat's ass about someone ordering personal-use quantities of anything, even deadly stuff like fentanyl. But if they intercept a package containing say 800 dosage units of any controlled substance you no longer look like Joe Average trying to skirt the law for personal use, and start looking like a dealer refreshing his inventory. Sure, given the sheer number of packages that go through the various shipping carriers, you could probably ship ten thousand with like a 98% certainty of success. But the risk would be much higher if you get caught. Something to keep in mind.
Speaking for myself, I feel perfectly safe ordering gear. But to say it again, the fewer details openly discussed, the better. I know that most of the people on this board already know all this stuff, but it doesn't hurt to rehash it from time to time for the new people who show up.
