h a l f b a k e r yI didn't say you were on to something, I said you were on something.
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There is an urban legend about someone who brought a
container of left-foot shoes, allowed it to be caught and
confiscated, and waited for it to be put on sale. Since no-one
has what to do with left-foot shoes only, he bought the
container for a rediculous price.
He then brought in a container
with right shoes only.
This could be done systematically by a company called half-
import.com. Would it be legal? As long as it was done small
scale, would countries counter this?
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I think they're on to this. Airports take a very proactive attitude to left luggage. |
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Legally, this could work if an item could be separated into two parts, each of which was relatively valueless without the other ... there'd be no need to smuggle. |
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But the separated items would have to have no other intrinsic value, and be very easy to recombine. |
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This brings to mind a question as to what do amputees do with the other shoe? (glove, etc) |
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I believe there's a website where they can exchange such items. |
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It's a good method for smuggling shipping containers. Inspectors get all caught up trying to make sense of the contents. |
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I'd think the method of intentionally allowing it to be captured by a government agency and then buying it back at auction would have to constitute some kind of fraud or evasion crime. I'm not a lawyer, that's just my gut feeling. |
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I fail to see how the guy makes money. Where did the shoes come from in the first place? Did he buy them? |
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All I can see is that a container of unpaired shoes would be worthless and not have to pay much of a customs fee. Is that it? Are we dodging import fees? |
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(There are many anecdotes about evading customs. I am sure the customs guys are looking for tricks all the time.) |
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Getting the shoes as lefts and rights could be done at the manufacturers, easily, using cheap foreign labor, but pairing and re-boxing them is going to be done by expensive domestic labor (and as a bunch of one-off jobs). And if you ship them through different terminals to avoid notice, there's more transport. And the travel and hassle of bidding in two places. |
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Left handed screwdrivers, left hand drive cars...somehow I never had any success with those. |
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Try left-handed comments. |
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