Why hasnt anyone thought of this yet (foreign mail orders)

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

Apologies for the redundant message.

I responded to the post that started me thinking this, but wanted it to get a bit of light by putting it in its own thread (not that that will make a difference, but hope you foreign guys appreciate my trying to solve you difficulties).

I still say the best way to get a Mega Campaign to some place like Europe has to be locating a reliable friend in the US
step two mail them the money (yes just mail the the dang money).

step three the friend buys the cd for nothing more than it really should cost anyone in the civilised world.

step four he merely puts it in ordinary mail, yes ordinary mail, nothing fancy, a bubble envelope and a piece of card board shipped airmail.

With conversion to US funds, Matrix shipping costs to friend, friends cost to mail to person wanting cd, I refuse to believe this will exceed half the cost it appears to be for fans in Europe. Its insane to do it otherwise.

I have thought about it. I have sent music to a girl I know in the US. I never ask for anything. I just like to be nice.
I can garantee you if I plan on buying Mega Campaign, and I likely will, I am not planning on letting any insanity ruin my purchase. I happen to know she can buy it for the civilised price of what it costs a US citizen and then no more than a couple of bucks for re routing through mail to me. And since I am nice she will likely not even ask for the mail cost to me. I might as well be living in the US effectively.

Why isnt anyone thinking of these sort of strategies (or is this why my friends routinely lose to me hehehe, I think outside of the box).

[generalrichmond]

I would venture that people would *like* to do that, but might be wondering just how they'd go about locating someone to do that for them. Well, this is one very big community that seems to get along just fine, so how can we set something like this up? It would no doubt set a more secure atmosphere if someone well known (or bet yet, known personally by some people here) could act as such a purchasing liason.

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

Myself I find people through chat realms. Sure thats not precise. But we all must have met at least one person online we know better than half the people that live on our actual home street.

I know of three people online I would marry if I was single. Cant say that every guy on here is going to be identically blessed.

I do think that there has to be at least sooooome people here on Matrix that have established themselves to others of the forum. But again all you need is a person in the US you trust.

They dont have to even know what Steel Panthers is. They merely have to be your honest to goodness friend. And willing to order the CD for you.

[john g]

Originally posted by Les the Sarge 9-1:
Apologies for the redundant message.

I responded to the post that started me thinking this, but wanted it to get a bit of light by putting it in its own thread (not that that will make a difference, but hope you foreign guys appreciate my trying to solve you difficulties).

I still say the best way to get a Mega Campaign to some place like Europe has to be locating a reliable friend in the US
step two mail them the money (yes just mail the the dang money).

step three the friend buys the cd for nothing more than it really should cost anyone in the civilised world.

step four he merely puts it in ordinary mail, yes ordinary mail, nothing fancy, a bubble envelope and a piece of card board shipped airmail.

With conversion to US funds, Matrix shipping costs to friend, friends cost to mail to person wanting cd, I refuse to believe this will exceed half the cost it appears to be for fans in Europe. Its insane to do it otherwise.

I have thought about it. I have sent music to a girl I know in the US. I never ask for anything. I just like to be nice.
I can garantee you if I plan on buying Mega Campaign, and I likely will, I am not planning on letting any insanity ruin my purchase. I happen to know she can buy it for the civilised price of what it costs a US citizen and then no more than a couple of bucks for re routing through mail to me. And since I am nice she will likely not even ask for the mail cost to me. I might as well be living in the US effectively.

Why isnt anyone thinking of these sort of strategies (or is this why my friends routinely lose to me hehehe, I think outside of the box).

---

There are a few problems with this approach, if you plan to actually send currency through the mail, you might be interested in the experiance ham radio operators have.

When trying to get a confirmation of contact card from a foreign country, the preferred method of helping out is sending international reply coupons to defray the cost of postage. If the ham on the other end thinks that isn't enough, often the only way to get the card is to send what we call green stamps (dollar bills). In quite a few countries those never make it, postal workers will pilfer envelopes that appear to have money in them.

When I was living in South Korea, we were warned not to bother subsribing to anything like Playboy, they would never make it past the APO workers who would take anything they wanted home.

In these days of increasing computer use, don't be surprised if cd mailers get filched from the mail, that postman might have a computer at home needing free software.

Anything you want this much I wouldn't trust to an insecure method like normal post. Unless your friend can copy it off and send you several copies over several days in the hope that one might make it thru.

Not to mention what happens when your friendly customs agents show up, wondering why you are not paying import tariffs on products you are importing.

Someone also has to foot the bill for the currency exchange unless you have a source of dollars you could mail back to the US.

If you want to smuggle disks into your country, why not make friends with an airline flight attendant and have them carry it back with them when they work a flight from the US.

I thought about doing that when I was collecting miniatures and was buying them from Games Workshop in the UK, if you think you have to pay a lot for shipping cds just try shipping lead.
thanks, John.

[Les_the_Sarge_9_1]

Hmm the airline notion is a cool idea.

Yes I understand not all countries come with decent human beings as standard issue unfortunately.

I have been told that to send actual cash it is best to put it in something that makes detection unlikely. The presence of currency can be made hard to detect with very little imagination. Considering though that I have witnessed large volumes of mail appear through the mail that has cash in it though, it actually does make it quite often (more often than I would have thought possible).

With regards to customs, well I cant say I am a pro on that matter. It wasnt a problem when I sent cds to Australia though, and that is about as far away from Canada as it gets. I am not overly interested in worrying about offending customs types or their ilk. But I dont support suppressive trade practices willingly. And making a person pay tarrifs is in my opinion suppressive.

But that is neither here nor there I guess.

[kao16]

Originally posted by john g:

<SNIP>
In these days of increasing computer use, don't be surprised if cd mailers get filched from the mail, that postman might have a computer at home needing free software.

<SNIP>

Not to mention what happens when your friendly customs agents show up, wondering why you are not paying import tariffs on products you are importing.

Someone also has to foot the bill for the currency exchange unless you have a source of dollars you could mail back to the US.

If you want to smuggle disks into your country, why not make friends with an airline flight attendant and have them carry it back with them when they work a flight from the US.

I thought about doing that when I was collecting miniatures and was buying them from Games Workshop in the UK, if you think you have to pay a lot for shipping cds just try shipping lead.
thanks, John.

---

Firstly, paying for the product.

If sending cash (never advised but sometimes the only way) don't package it in any many that may suggest what the package contains.... get a few pages of A4 (standard Laser printer paper) with lots of writing on them (computer generated - say from the waste paper supply at your local Laser printer) and fold to fit the envelope. Place money inside the folds.

Alternatively there is bank cheque (expensive, $20 in NZ vs $5 to buy the cash)

Or something like PayPal - you authourise an agency to draw funds against your credit card, and they pay it, less their charges, to whomever you want's credit card - cost ~2.5% of transfer value plus $0.30: $30 cost ~$1.05. Just how much do you trust your credit card onthe internet....

Mail being stolen: Get your contact to repackage the CD. Wrap CD in bubble wrap, insert into envelope and post. May cost slightly more than sending it as is but the package is not recognisable as a CD.

And about customs....
When your contact posts the CD they fill out a tax declaration. They can always add the word "gift" if that helps.

You are unlikely to get anybody in flight/cabin crew to smuggle packages in. But if you ask them to bring in a CD for you... they can always imply that it is personal property (who is going to know otherwise)

[tracer]

I have a firsthand (positive) experience. Back in '98 I had Orlando Magic season tickets and posted an offer in the newsgroup to sell some games. The local 'takers' were no problem (meet them and swap), but one guy from England wanted all 4 seats for a game being played during his family's upcoming visit to Orlando. While still deciding how to make the 'exchange', I got a letter from him...a lined envelope, the kind you can't see through, with a $100 bill. I mailed him the 4 tickets and he sent me another hundred...seemed too easy.

Points:
--the cash is coming into the US (and postal workers aren't exactly opening letters at random these days).
--the CDs will mostly be going to places in Europe, and cardboard CD mailers are fairly commonplace.
--some of the non-US SPWAW'ers here probably know several forum members well enough to have them do the shipping.

[O de B]

Well you can also have a look on the dealers page from the main site.
Matrix has 2 dealers for western Europe, Net4war & Duchet Computers.