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Shipping to the usa (seeds)

What I "heard" works really well is putting the seeds in a CD/video case and putting no or little value, and marking something like Family video. Haven't "heard" of any getting taken but might take a month for them to get them but most times about two weeks shipping from the US most times only a week to UK. ;)   
 
I just sent several chilli seeds from Belgium to USA in regular (unpadded) envelopes without any notifications. I just made sure the seeds were fixed in the center of the envelope to avoid damage as mutch as possible. As far as I know all seeds arrived at their destination.
 
I also used the DVD box trick to send other kinds of stuff that is not normally permitted without problems.
 
I have sent seeds in bubbled envelope, even larger quantities, not like 300g as your link, but still 2 dozen or maybe more varieties, each of them with minimum 10 seeds, some with 100, also small pieces of dried peppers, and never had problems. All of them arrived nice and safe. I have sent them from local postal office, not through customs. Nobody ask what's inside. Just weight the envelope and put the stamps according to the weight and distance. I get tracking number for them, and can track till leave the territory of Romania, and I found the tracking number later on the USPS site when enter the US territory, can see also all the operations on the US territory.
 
I have sent even fresh peppers just to Slovenia, in a bubbled envelope, no tracking number, simple sending, and guess what, paid only about 0.4 euro!
 
I have gotten seeds sent to me from as far as Australia by simple bubble wrap envelope marked fragile with no problem along with a simple card with seed packs in it and just a plain envelope. Sending out of the US I have only had problems in Africa the mailing system is messed up there. I did recently get a regular envelope with seed packs sent in large plastic zip bags that the post office ran through their sorting machine that smashed the hell out of things I don't know yet if if any of the seeds made it intacted. So that could be a problem with just plain envelopes once they hit the US postal.
 
I think the main thing is to protect the seeds somehow, make sure the envelope is pretty much an even thickness (no lumps) and avoid the PO (at least here in the states) as much as possible. My local office has made me fill out a customs form for a freaking greeting card! I now have global stamps and there is an official PO weigh machine at work, so I can be sure of the weight. I just address them, stamp them and drop them in the mail box outside of work. So far, nothing has come back to me. This works for the SASBE too!
 
I do tape the plastic baggies to a sheet of paper, so they don't move around and bunch up, which keeps the thickness of the envelope even.
 
If you want to avoid the sorting machines, use a square envelope, as they can't figure out which side is which, so it pushes them to hand sorting, costs a bit more, but worth it in my mind.
 
Also, I've heard (no proof) that customs people do hang out in some garden forums. Don't know if this is true or not, seems a waste of time to me.
 
From what I've read, Australia is the hardest place to get things into. Here in the USA, Customs only inspects roughly 5% of the incoming cargo. I think this most be the same in all countries, otherwise the Giant Asian Hornet would not have made it into France in a shipment of pottery.
 
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