Is it safe to travel with sealed games to another country?

[Mijael | 347]

Does someone here has experience travelling with sealed games to another country? I ask this because its the 2nd time in the month my sealed games are opened by customs . First in Brazil now in USA. I feel really frustrated and i think the only safe way to send something to grade is to travel myself with 3 or 4 games but i am not sure if they will be opened in airport security...

[3rdStrongestMole | 430]

9 minutes ago, Mijael said:

Does someone here has experience travelling with sealed games to another country? I ask this because its the 2nd time in the month my sealed games are opened by customs . First in Brazil now in USA. I feel really frustrated and i think the only safe way to send something to grade is to travel myself with 3 or 4 games but i am not sure if they will be opened in airport security...

At least if you travel with them and say you can't take them aboard the plane for whatever reason, you don't have to board. They shouldn't open up sealed items without your consent, at least in US, but they might say you can't board if they can't take a peek. 

It might not be convenient,  but at least your games would still be sealed if you can't board. 

[AnimalHouse | 117]

I order games all the time from Canada and Europe and never experienced what you are going through. *knock on wood* Maybe CBP has a policy on anything coming from south of the border must be opened? You know because of the illegal substances that is wreaking havoc in this country. 

[Mijael | 347]

Yes i think that`s the reason they open the games . Sadly Mexico is know now internationally for a drug country . They probably don`t open every game and i just had very bad luck but i can`t take this risk anymore . I will have to travel if i want my games to be graded

Edited February 23, 2022 by Mijael

[inasuma | 1,203]

3 hours ago, 3rdStrongestMole said:

At least if you travel with them and say you can't take them aboard the plane for whatever reason, you don't have to board. They shouldn't open up sealed items without your consent, at least in US, but they might say you can't board if they can't take a peek. 

It might not be convenient,  but at least your games would still be sealed if you can't board. 

heh, if logan paul can board with a base set 1st edition booster box, game should hopefully be fine... right guys? 

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

Quick question. Have you looked into DHL or FedEx? I know that DHL is in your area, and can say it is worth trying. With reasons being that I use them all the time when I order stuff from Japan. With FedEx being my alternative when they are not an option (ex. Play-Asia).

As for flying, I had no issues when it came to my carry-on stuff. But I also have not flown anywhere in the past 4 years.

[Mijael | 347]

6 hours ago, FenrirZero said:

Quick question. Have you looked into DHL or FedEx? I know that DHL is in your area, and can say it is worth trying. With reasons being that I use them all the time when I order stuff from Japan. With FedEx being my alternative when they are not an option (ex. Play-Asia).

As for flying, I had no issues when it came to my carry-on stuff. But I also have not flown anywhere in the past 4 years.

The games i ordered from Brazil where shipped with DHL. Last year i sent a game to miami via DHL and the buyer says it was opened . When i ship something more expensive i use UPS and now they opened my game...I think its not the shipping company the problem is the country from where i am shipping. As another member said before goverment has a policy to open randomly open packages coming from south of the border to search for ilegal substances.

Edited February 23, 2022 by Mijael

[RH | 4,904]

As mentioned, I'm sure this is 100% drug related.  The chances of shipping drugs from Canada or Japan to the US is probably much slimmer than shipping from Mexico or likely any South American country.  I'm sorry it's that way, but I'd be willing to bet that statistics stand by that and as such, their internal system which flags which packages to open and inspect or not, is probably heavily weighted toward items coming from SA and possibly a few other regions.  Everything else probably has a lower weight and therefore items coming from those regions have a much smaller chance of being opened and inspected.

TL;DR: Customs can open and inspect every item, so they are going to prioritize it based off of what they do know, and that's not much.  If a box is x-rayed and there's electronics, and it ships from regions where a lot of drugs originate, the chances of the item being inspected is probably quite high.  If the package comes from a low-risk region, then customs is much more likely to push it through and take the chance.

[YOURTURN | 1,256]

11 hours ago, Mijael said:

The games i ordered from Brazil where shipped with DHL. Last year i sent a game to miami via DHL and the buyer says it was opened . When i ship something more expensive i use UPS and now they opened my game...I think its not the shipping company the problem is the country from where i am shipping. As another member said before goverment has a policy to open randomly open packages coming from south of the border to search for ilegal substances.

That is weird. The buyer portion of what you said has me wonder if that is something else. But commonly, DHL uses x-ray machines to scan all packages. And only open the ones that either look questionable via x-ray scans or cannot be scanned. But as I have said before, I switched from EMS to DHL because I had packages that looked like they were tampered with via customs. So it might also be volume that is your culprit.