• Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net
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    21 hours ago

    Any advice on how to move all my shit without it getting stolen?

    I’ve got a collection of a shit load of Legos from childhood that hold a lot of sentimental value, but it’s easily worth a shit load of money. In particular I’d be looking to move to Costa Rica. My fiance is from there, but she said stuff like that would be likely to get stolen by customs.

    • bitofarambler@crazypeople.online
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      15 hours ago

      people usually ship their belongings by sea or air(ocean freight is cheaper and slower, but I’m not sure by how much with Costa Rica being so near) with a company like DHL, I’ve used them and found them to be a reliable international shipping company, FedEx and UPS are also options.

      I wouldn’t worry about customs taking your stuff, especially if you have insurance or tracking or anything like that on the ticket, and especially with a wealthier country like Costa Rica where paper trails are more important.

      I’ve actually never heard of customs taking anything legal in real life from anyone who’s shipped belongings overseas(my friend’s yak jerky got confiscated because it’s illegal to import a lot of international meat products into the US) so I personally don’t believe customs pocketing things is very common.

      Legos aren’t apparently valuable on their face and with the paper trail of receipts/documents I wouldn’t think you have to worry about anything getting lifted by customs. plus, if you add some fragile notices and insurance on there the agents responsible for transporting the packages will be a lot more careful, for sure.

      • Olgratin_Magmatoe@slrpnk.net
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        13 hours ago

        I wouldn’t worry about customs taking your stuff, especially if you have insurance or tracking or anything like that on the ticket, and especially with a wealthier country like Costa Rica where paper trails are more important.

        It’s something my fiance warned me about. Her and her family has known customs agents to take shit. Recently they tried to send some chocolates and small gifts to us here in the U.S., and about 1/3rd of the chocolate got stolen. I’m not sure which company it was with, but it is something that happens, and to my understanding is just a culturally known fact of life.

        Legos aren’t apparently valuable on their face and with the paper trail of receipts/documents I wouldn’t think you have to worry about anything getting lifted by customs.

        Sure, but by weight I’m looking at about $2k worth of misc boxes, before accounting for built sets that are in good condition with all their pieces.

        if you add some fragile notices and insurance on there the agents responsible for transporting the packages will be a lot more careful, for sure.

        I’ll have to look into this then. Thank you for the help!

        • bitofarambler@crazypeople.online
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          14 minutes ago

          I see what you mean now.

          I thought you were mainly concerned about shipping things from the US, which neither I nor anyone I’ve known has had a package intercepted or interfered with en route to dozens of countries, frequently containing valuables. It must happen, but it seems very rare.

          The other way though, if you’re sending packages to the US from other countries, you could have that problem occasionally, which I have experienced twice and heard of from other travelers shipping things to the US.

          As far as I know, that’s a one-way problem, US-tagged packages seem to slip through sticky fingers.