Silk Road forums
Discussion => Shipping => Topic started by: KatEverdeen209 on May 12, 2012, 11:46 pm
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Well I know I can walk into the post office and hand them the package and ask for a DCN.
But is there a way I could just put a dcn on it myself so I could go straight from home to the Blue Drop box and drop off the packages and still have em tracked?
I'm not worried about the price of dcn or anything would just like to not have to go into the post office and still have DCN on my package. =]
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just grab a handful next time at PO, then sticke em on at home. Then apply proper postage. All is well.
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Word? I can just take them?
Why do I pay extra when I use them at the post office then? Lol
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You pay the additional cost of postage, the piece of paper is free, but requires additional postage on the item.
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OK so I can just weigh my package, figure out how much postage it needs then add more for dcn and apply stamps accordingly?
How much do you add for dcn
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What you gotta do is go to the PO and take a stack of the DCN stickies. Then once you are ready to send your package just stick the DCN on along with postage plus $0.80 in on top. That is if you are in the US it is $0.80 for DCN. So again you have to put the original postage on plus the extra for the DCN and you are good to go to any Blue Box.
Peace
StuntBum
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Thank you guys this is exactly what I wanted to know =]
I appreciate it =]
Thread resolved
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DCN $.75 additional with USPS.
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Not 80¢?
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Not 80¢?
It's 75, but you can only buy 80 cent stamps. That way they get their extra 5 cents lmao.
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just buy equal amounts of 5.15 and $1 stamps and it looks better and is damn year close to exact postage
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Exact postage is the best. They make $.65 stamps and $.10 stamps.
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That's right, over stamping is not a good idea as it's a red flag to Inspectors.
Also..It's not a good idea to use DCN stickers sequentially from a stack you've grabbed at the PO. If for some reason a package you've shipped with DCN gets flagged or seized, they will probably look to see if there are other DCN parcels in the system bearing numbers that came immediately before or after the one they've seized. Maybe you shipped two pkgs on same day using DCNs from your stack. Maybe you send one today and one tomorrow and one the following day...using DNC's from same batch of stickers. They will easily be able to identify the others and grab them up and have double or triple the evidence on you(if they can track you down.) They'll know the receivers are all tied to the same seller as well. They also may be able to identify you taking the labels off the rack via security cameras.
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BTW DCN is cheaper with priority than it is for non-priority. Make sure you put exact postage.
Don't do any of this, "It's .75 cents so I am going to throw a dollar stamp on", that is just asking to get flagged.
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Make sure you put exact postage.
Don't do any of this, "It's .75 cents so I am going to throw a dollar stamp on", that is just asking to get flagged.
Where is your proof?
I've seen many make that claim, but no one has ever thrown down evidence to prove it. It's just like saying checking tracking through tor will flag your package.
Of course it is good practice to use correct postage and not to check through tor, but I do not believe they will make or break you.
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It's .80 cents for first class mail or something. ( didn't pay attention because I don't ship this way )
It's .75 cents for priority mail.
I've never had a problem putting .80 on DCN's and you can get exact postage 75 or 80 from APS machines they have in some 24hour locations. Check the USPS sight for locations near you.
Source: Postal worker I asked while doing some legit buisiness.
BTW. I'm on a beautiful beach right now drinking a beer. :P
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Make sure you put exact postage.
Don't do any of this, "It's .75 cents so I am going to throw a dollar stamp on", that is just asking to get flagged.
Where is your proof?
I've seen many make that claim, but no one has ever thrown down evidence to prove it. It's just like saying checking tracking through tor will flag your package.
Of course it is good practice to use correct postage and not to check through tor, but I do not believe they will make or break you.
Its common knowledge that a package with more postage than is necessary is more likely to be contraband. What business would pay more than necessary for postage?
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Make sure you put exact postage.
Don't do any of this, "It's .75 cents so I am going to throw a dollar stamp on", that is just asking to get flagged.
Where is your proof?
I've seen many make that claim, but no one has ever thrown down evidence to prove it. It's just like saying checking tracking through tor will flag your package.
Of course it is good practice to use correct postage and not to check through tor, but I do not believe they will make or break you.
Its common knowledge that a package with more postage than is necessary is more likely to be contraband. What business would pay more than necessary for postage?
Argumentum ad populum. Like the person asked, where's the proof? Though I agree it's a plausible conclusion I don't see any proof and so must play the devils advocate.
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Also..It's not a good idea to use DCN stickers sequentially from a stack you've grabbed at the PO. If for some reason a package you've shipped with DCN gets flagged or seized, they will probably look to see if there are other DCN parcels in the system bearing numbers that came immediately before or after the one they've seized. Maybe you shipped two pkgs on same day using DCNs from your stack. Maybe you send one today and one tomorrow and one the following day...using DNC's from same batch of stickers. They will easily be able to identify the others and grab them up and have double or triple the evidence on you(if they can track you down.) They'll know the receivers are all tied to the same seller as well. They also may be able to identify you taking the labels off the rack via security cameras.
Typical burnt drugee mythology. What places you at more risk doing it from home as opposed to using the same sequential DCNs from the same stack if you walked into a post office to label them, paid for exact postage, and handed it to them to mail out? That would mean that everyone sending multiple items using DCNs is at more risk since the sequential ordering of labeling multiple packages is difficult to avoid so a lot of legitimate businesses doing mass mailings are gonna get flagged because of the sequence of their DCN labels. What a goose chase that would be.
That's right, over stamping is not a good idea as it's a red flag to Inspectors.
Sounds like more burnt drugee mythology. Have you bothered reading the USPS shipping sticky written by a USPS worker? Red flag my ass. They need to get a warrant to open a package. What do you think would happen if the reasoning a postal inspector gave to a judge to sign off on a warrant to open a package was that the postage was overpaid? The judge would either laugh him out of the room or be pissed that this clown was wasting his time. I'm sure there are TONS of people that overpay their postage because they're not sure about the weight and want to ensure their package is delivered the first time they try. Do you think postal workers have the time to look at each envelope/package sent to guess whether it's a business mailing and then determine whether it's overpaid so it can be flagged? Wahahaha. rofl.
Read the usps postal worker writeup. USPS is already underfunded by budget cuts and shorthanded of the number of postal inspectors that can legitimately flag anything and overpaying postage is NOT probable cause, not even remotely. They're not going to waste time on such insane trivialities.
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If you send using any of the "FlatRate" methods using a DCN is free :) So you can just slap on the postage sticker for the flat rate envelope/box and the DCN and then go drop it off in a drop box. I have a lot of experience shipping packages so if you have any questions I would be more than happy to help.
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If you send using any of the "FlatRate" methods using a DCN is free :) So you can just slap on the postage sticker for the flat rate envelope/box and the DCN and then go drop it off in a drop box. I have a lot of experience shipping packages so if you have any questions I would be more than happy to help.
NOT if you are using priority and 85 cent stamps. I promise. Now if you use an apo or print online it's free, but not if you are using the stamps you buy and peel off yourself later. Just needed to make that clarification.
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Yes, this only works for the prepaid flat rate postage stickers. Not for 85 cent postage stuck onto a priority envelope. In that case you would need to include extra postage for the cost of the DCN, which is 75-90 cents? I cant remember off the top of my head. Correct me if Im wrong.
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Watch out in the automatic postal machine. There is camera in it, square glass near the credit card reader. If you walk to machine and cover it fully with opaque material e.g. wallet the postal machine will read "Sorry I can't complete your transaction right now." around when it would take credit card.
Of course to enter the post office you may be on the camera already.
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Make sure you put exact postage.
Don't do any of this, "It's .75 cents so I am going to throw a dollar stamp on", that is just asking to get flagged.
Where is your proof?
I've seen many make that claim, but no one has ever thrown down evidence to prove it. It's just like saying checking tracking through tor will flag your package.
Of course it is good practice to use correct postage and not to check through tor, but I do not believe they will make or break you.
I have lost the link posted by QTC that proves USPS will flag your package if you check the DCN via TOR but I can attest that overpaying your postage will in fact flag it, at least for international orders. I have made this mistake many times and every time I have made this mistake (overpaying the postage) the package has never made it because they seem to always open it, I have learned my lesson and now correctly pay the exact postage. If I weigh out a package and check the usps site for the price and it states $6.12, I buy a $6.12 stamp rather than a $7 stamp and it goes through every time.
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I have lost the link posted by QTC that proves USPS will flag your package if you check the DCN via TOR but I can attest that overpaying your postage will in fact flag it, at least for international orders. I have made this mistake many times and every time I have made this mistake (overpaying the postage) the package has never made it because they seem to always open it, I have learned my lesson and now correctly pay the exact postage. If I weigh out a package and check the usps site for the price and it states $6.12, I buy a $6.12 stamp rather than a $7 stamp and it goes through every time.
Interesting. I can see how overpaying postage might be one of a number of things that could trigger a package being pulled aside for further inspection. But it's hard to see how simply overpaying postage alone would do that since I could see it happening a lot.
Would love to see that link that "proves" flagging if dcn checked from TOR. I wonder how that squares with those that have received fine that have checked from TOR. Not that doing such a thing is advisable under any circumstances, but sounds like a common enough rookie mistake that there should be enough cases to determine whether it decreases the likelihood of a successful delivery to any statistically significant degree.
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I have lost the link posted by QTC that proves USPS will flag your package if you check the DCN via TOR but I can attest that overpaying your postage will in fact flag it, at least for international orders. I have made this mistake many times and every time I have made this mistake (overpaying the postage) the package has never made it because they seem to always open it, I have learned my lesson and now correctly pay the exact postage. If I weigh out a package and check the usps site for the price and it states $6.12, I buy a $6.12 stamp rather than a $7 stamp and it goes through every time.
Interesting. I can see how overpaying postage might be one of a number of things that could trigger a package being pulled aside for further inspection. But it's hard to see how simply overpaying postage alone would do that since I could see it happening a lot.
Would love to see that link that "proves" flagging if dcn checked from TOR. I wonder how that squares with those that have received fine that have checked from TOR. Not that doing such a thing is advisable under any circumstances, but sounds like a common enough rookie mistake that there should be enough cases to determine whether it decreases the likelihood of a successful delivery to any statistically significant degree.
When you've been in this business long enough you get more and more paranoid to the point where you're wearing a tinfoil satellite on your head. Sure there not might be concrete evidence proving that overpaying for your stamps will flag your package or that checking a DCN on TOR will flag your package but in the end you have to ask yourself, why risk it? The best way to not get caught in this business is to wrap yourself in tinfoil and take every precaution to not get caught, whether it's paying the exact postage on your packages or hiring a private courier to deliver your packages, big vendors go down for taking risks and honestly, I would rather be paranoid than being cocky.
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When you've been in this business long enough you get more and more paranoid to the point where you're wearing a tinfoil satellite on your head. Sure there not might be concrete evidence proving that overpaying for your stamps will flag your package or that checking a DCN on TOR will flag your package but in the end you have to ask yourself, why risk it? The best way to not get caught in this business is to wrap yourself in tinfoil and take every precaution to not get caught, whether it's paying the exact postage on your packages or hiring a private courier to deliver your packages, big vendors go down for taking risks and honestly, I would rather be paranoid than being cocky.
It's still useful to know these things and be able to distinguish between ironclad truths and paranoid fables. Why be paranoid over issues that don't require it? Using private couriers is well accepted conventional wisdom to being inherently more risky because they don't require warrants. For instance, it would be useful to know how many flags a package must have before it's pulled aside for further inspection. They just wouldn't have the time to do that with every single package that had overpaid postage. This is just common sense. It's also helpful from a troubleshooting perspective say, if something doesn't arrive at its proper destination, what the real reason was that it didn't arrive. It's always smart to be over than under cautious. But that shouldn't prevent you from wanting to know the truth behind the actual policies.
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When you've been in this business long enough you get more and more paranoid to the point where you're wearing a tinfoil satellite on your head. Sure there not might be concrete evidence proving that overpaying for your stamps will flag your package or that checking a DCN on TOR will flag your package but in the end you have to ask yourself, why risk it? The best way to not get caught in this business is to wrap yourself in tinfoil and take every precaution to not get caught, whether it's paying the exact postage on your packages or hiring a private courier to deliver your packages, big vendors go down for taking risks and honestly, I would rather be paranoid than being cocky.
It's still useful to know these things and be able to distinguish between ironclad truths and paranoid fables. Why be paranoid over issues that don't require it? Using private couriers is well accepted conventional wisdom to being inherently more risky because they don't require warrants. For instance, it would be useful to know how many flags a package must have before it's pulled aside for further inspection. They just wouldn't have the time to do that with every single package that had overpaid postage. This is just common sense. It's also helpful from a troubleshooting perspective say, if something doesn't arrive at its proper destination, what the real reason was that it didn't arrive. It's always smart to be over than under cautious. But that shouldn't prevent you from wanting to know the truth behind the actual policies.
Unfortunately, we have only had access to lower class workers in USPS/UPS/FedEx and they have offered us some great advice in terms of shipping safely. The biggest problem us vendors face is knowing the protocols that customs use, as far I know your package will only get flagged in customs if shipped from drug capitals (ie. NL). There are several different ways for your packages to be flagged and I'm too lazy to list them all (you can search them on the forums) but the most important things are packages that overpay their postage, packages that are not packaged correctly or very loosely, products that are not properly vacuum sealed, packages that contain bogus addresses/names (ie. celebrity names, brad pitt, russel crowe, etc) You're correct in saying they wouldn't have time do that with every package but you have to remember that taking these precautions is the best way to not get caught. I feel like it is more important to take these precautions when doing international orders rather than domestic but after doing these packaging methods, I've gotten used to doing it safely and overly paranoid every time which insures the safety of not only me but for my customer as well.