Quote Originally Posted by Zcomp
I cant tell you any what ifs.. I can only tell you that I have read enough articles about these busts going down.
During "discovery" you eventually find out who originally started the ball rolling, In these cases it turns out the ebay/paypal team are hard at work reporting suspicious activity. They probably get some type of cash "reward". Without rats this country would have no convictions.
I'm not against reporting crime, just against the punishment.
IF you order from ebay, be careful where you ship and what account you use.
I'm trying to be as inconspicuous as possible. My thoughts on these statements are conflicting. While possible, do you really think that the feds are going to go thru all the cost and trouble of staking out my house and securing warrants, just because I bought 1 hid light thru ebay (htgsupply's ebay store)? Even if somebody is watching, I do not sell, and have only a small grow setup for personal use, that only 3 people know about, and it is for our use only. We do not have connections, no suppliers, nobody to give up, and all 3 of us have clean criminal records. If I was a higher up at a dea office, then I would not waste my time, and very few judges would grant warrants based on 1 LEGAL light purchase. Now I understand if someone puts 8 1000 watt hps, 4 large hydro setups, and 3 "how to grow cannabis" books on their credit card and have it sent to their house, but even then without some kind of snitch testimony (ebay and paypal do not count, they have VERY circumstantial evidence at best!) I think that the ebay paypal thing would be used as supplemental evidence if you had a guy you sold to go down and sing, but they are probably not watching every ebay transaction looking for small purchases that MIGHT POSSIBLY be used for cultivating cannabis. I am all for playing it safe, and buy all my nutes, hydroton, net pots etc thru a hydro shop with cash, and i stop during work in my work truck, so no tails home, as I usually drive around from town to town for hours after a purchase. But my ph meter and tds meter were bought thru ebay, and I plan on getting a hid thru htgsupply's ebay store. Not only do I doubt that that would raise suspicion, but if the HID purchase was the only thing they had, my lawyer would piss on them in court. I also do not smoke and drive, nor do I transport. If I want to go somewhere stoned, I do it at home before i leave and if it wears off, oh well. Plus, I think my small grow op is a less conspicuous plan than meeting with a known pot dealer every week or two, and my phone # in his phone and his in mine. Just my opinion, anyone who has actually had trouble thru ebay respond, but I'm sure most of these cases was just supplemental after they were already being watched due to snitch testimony!