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I agree. I don't think that a lawsuit against the government could be filed in this case, and if it could, it probably wouldn't go very far.

Type "seized by customs" into Google and you will see clusters of posts each year. They have a week or two where they crack down on this suff, then it goes back to normal.

Why? Because even if their technology gets better, the fact remains that they do not have (and are not likely to get) enough personnel to open and inspect every single package that comes in. They have to prioritize. And my guess is their focus will be on items that pose a safety hazard, such as ⊗⊗⊗⊗ drugs, airplane parts, etc.

As a cigar smoker I have always been aware of the situation of customs and Cuban cigars.
These are seized because the revenue they bring in helps to fund a hostile government, whereas for the moment trade is open with China and whereas we aren't exactly allies the relationship is definitely better than with Cuba

Question. Can some people give feedback on this information I gather online.

Why do i read in several replica designer handbags supplier sites in China they claim 99% of their customers worldwide don't experience custom seizement of their bags? Particularly regarding U.S. customs- both the replica suppliers and many of the American customers state their packages never get open as too many packages arriving in customs everyday. They also pay no tax at all. Shipping courier is EMS, item declared as "gift". Small box packing.

They say it's 1% chance your box to get opened.. it's very unlikely your box to get opened

But then in this forum, i read people worrying about their package to get opened and seized, it's like the risk is high, seems like the U.S. customs is strict and open a lot of packages esp. coming from China?

What really? I'm moving to U.S. so im concerned about this.

Thanks.

I have two guesses.
1) the suppliers are not being upfront, but rather trying to give potential buyers a false sense of security
2) the people here are obviously buying them to sell and as a result buying in larger quantities which results in larger packages which results in a higher risk of being inspected

Same guesses here. But leaning more on the big boxes as the problem. Suppliers and customers stated order small quantity for small box.

I have a friend in the U.S. who works for FedEx i asked him how often packages get opened.. and he told me too many packages arriving each day that customs don't have time to check on a lot of packages and open. Most small packages get thru easily.

But still..

I am still paranoid. :boink:

I never ever want to get into trouble.. i'm worried if my package got seized i may get reported to authorities or the designer company?!

The 1% chance is still scaring the sh!t outta me.

I want assurance of no trouble, i don't want to take risk.

Perhaps i'll use commercial address not home address like suggested by GreenBean.

U.S.A here i come =} (I just hope i never get into trouble LOL)

I would be interested to know what your friend knows a "small" package to be???
weight and dimensions

Right, i'm gonna ask him that and more info on customs and shipments too. But we seldomly get to chat as different timezone.

I suggest you re-think your business plan.

If you are that paranoid about a customs seizure, what are you going to do when a buyer sends an email through eBay accusing you of selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗ and threatens to report you to the police, the FBI, the IRS, the CIA and their momma?

Jeff, I don't think they have FBI, IRS, etc in his country...

No doubt. But according to his post, he is moving here.

Lol, it was meant to be a little joke.
But moving here? Oh dear... he is in for a rude awakening.

I guess... just be a good citizen and use the knowledge he gets from us to be a decent seller.

There is never a 100% assurance of no trouble if you are dealing with replica or ⊗⊗⊗⊗ items.

I second that. And there's never 100% assurance in anything no matter how honest you are either.

This Post is Outta hand, first off it is true that a Very Small percentage of Packages get Seized by Customs. I do not Know about 1%, but it is relatively Small.

More important Mr MyWay is that if you Make a Decision that you are going to sell High Risk Counterfeit Merchandise then the FIRST Requirement is that you MUST have the STOMACH for it.

What are you thinking? That you are going to buy Thousands of counterfeit Handbags from China for $50.00 each and Sell them for $500.00, Do this for a couple or Months then buy a Mansion, Yacht, and a Plane and live off your Investments for the rest of your life, and NOT have any problems like Customs along the Way? Customs is one in a LONG String of Potential Problems that you will be facing,,, GUARANTEED!!!!
What kind of Cigarettes are you smoking over there?, I'd like One too.

Maybe you should sell something a Little Safer like Colored Yarn, and Knitting supplies.

:snicker::snicker::snicker::snicker:

from my exp - i lost about 1 out of 12 ....as the old saying goes in the Gym when i was a Personal Trainer ..never send more money overseas than you can afford to lose.

Dude, 1 out of 12 is A LOT, you NEED to check with your sellers, ask the if they are using Different "Ship From" Information for each Package, and you yourself should try FRESH "Ship to" Information (Information= Name, Address, contact Phone Number) Someones information is HOT either theirs or yours

hi friend , yesterday , many orders were holden by custom.

really very very bad things for me .

do you know what's wrong now ?many packages of dhl was holden , anybody know the reasons?

Hmmm...

End of June, first couple days in July was a problem.

Now it appears we have another problem.

Pattern seems to be end of month, but it is really too early to tell with only 60 days of data.

100 Responses
 

Wow this is a long thread with a lot of useful info. It should be a sticky or something!

I Never "Clocked" My Siezures which surprises me because becuaus I am Worse than Major League Baseball, I RECORD, Clock, and Analize EVERYTHING, I will start to pay a little more attention to it though.

At first thought, I would Hazard to Speculate that Customs Agents might have some type of "Quota" imposed on them by their Superiors, Something similar to Police Officers who have traffic Summons Issuing Quotas to meet. So as they approach the End of a Particular Period they Push to Meet their Quotas.

Law Enforcement is KNOWN to operate in this way in Many Instances.

Just a Theory that happens to fit the available facts, I could be wrong.

Wrong or not, it is a GOOD THEORY! It would certainly explain a lot. I am also extremely analytical. That is why I want as much data as I can get. If we can confirm a pattern, then problems can be avoided.

Mokedi posted $1,000 bail and was released from the Cook County Jail, but was immediately taken into custody by ICE agents, the release said. She is set to be deported later this week.



she made a bunch of money and only had a 1,000 bail? thats nothing..lol i know dudes who had 150,000 bail (no 10% opt) lol

who the heck is Mokedi?

I am wondering why my supplier changes from UPS to DHL. UPS used to deliver my stuff in 3 days, supplier claims that DHL is just as fast. I guess I will find out. I had a package shipped yesterday. Hope there's no issue with my pacakage and I receive it by Friday.

How do you track DHL packages by the way? Supplier gave me a 10 digit number, tried tracking it in the regular tracking area and it didnt come up. I know for UPS I had to track it as a reference. Tried that, didnt work either. I'll ask my supplier tonight.

Nigerian woman living in Chicago selling ⊗⊗⊗⊗ DVD box sets online. She was caught with 6,000 box sets in her apartment. The bail was actually $10,000 - but since she was not a citizen, as soon as she paid it she was taken into custody and has been deported.

I wonder if I could give back my citizenship in the USA and become a Bermuda citizen? It's only a 2 hour flight from the east.

That's the kind of human that makes things bad for us who are just trying to make a living and survive.
He makes tons of money and sends it overseas to fund devil knows what.

From the news articles, I don't think she was a terrorist or anything. She was a student who overstayed her visa, and probably became part of a criminal gang dedicated to making money through scams. So much so that it attracted the attention of law enforcement. A customs official said they seized a few hundred inboiund box sets, but that she had so much coming in, they could not possibly get all of it.

She is probably lucky she got deported because, at this volume, I would imagine jail time would be invloved if she stayed. She must have been selling hundreds of sets a week.

But I will certainly agree with you that news stories like this definitely don't help honest sellers just trying to make a living online.

well, perhaps we should try to keep in topic for this thread.

So anyways, any other news or info in terms of customs nowadays?

That would be me.

And you believe this??

I did not have 6500 sets in my house. What did they did was count each individual disc in a set and labelled it as 1 set, so assuming sopranos had 23 discs in a set they counted it as 23 sets to make it more serious.

I am still in the united states and the felony charge was dropped to a misdemeanour. No jail time for me.

Also I am not part of a criminal gang and I am not a terrorist. I got the items from dhgate and i was likely caught because of beachbody not because i had so many shipments coming in that they were unstoppable.

Assuming that you are Mokedi from the news story and it wasn't 6500 boxed sets, but 6500 individual disks that is still a minimum of 150-200 separate box sets like the Sopranos or Friends or others.
Seeing that these things go for $50 from DHgate and sell for upwards of $100 over here. we are still talking a pretty high dollar volume worth of stuff. I know of titles that can be had in bulk from DHgate for $60 and can bring in $200 on ebay and others.
With these kind of numbers involved here and the number of sets, it's hard for me that it was dropped to a misdemeanor.
And how is it that you are still in the US?

This I believe. The last time I had a shipment seized the letter from the Customs people said that they seized 200 items.
It was 100 packages with 2 pieces in each item all inside 1 shipping box.

So I can see them counting EACH DVD as a separate item.

I have to ask.....
Why in the world did you have packages shipped to you using your REAL name and REAL Apt address?

None of my shipments from overseas are shipped in my real name or address.
If you read a DHL label on one of my shipments your would have NO idea who I was or where I lived.

The ice agents let me go because I am not here illegally. I simply overstayed my visa. I still have to go to immigration court though.

Well it was dropped to a misdemeanour, maybe because i do not have a record or any prior arrest or maybe they did not have that strong of a case. i honestly do not know.

The media also blew it out of proportion but i am not going to go into that.

I did not know it was that big of a deal.

Where do you have them shipped then?
You have to at least have access to the address to receive them so how do you get around it?

Can a person get a PO Box (the smallest available) at the UPS store or similar and use it to receive large (too big to fit into the box) shipments from overseas?

Would like to know how people are dealing with this issue