Chinese ration on ebay

[fdsman]

http://cgi.ebay.com/CHINESE-MILITARY-MR ... 3efe52daa7

if you're brave enough grab it.

[Bypah]

Yep...that's one of oletroop's PLA rations.....

[Ruleryak]

I went for it - snagged 2 army and 2 navy from the guy while he was still there. His account's been removed since, but he was legitimately selling and delivering the goods. Mine took 40 days to get here and when it did it had been manhandled by customs. I've got some pictures handy I can post:















They detained the package for a while, ripped it open (literally, these guys were not opening the top and resealing when they could just rip the side out and tape it shut after), kept 1 army, 1 navy (and a toy?) and let me keep the rest. I almost want to leave the army one taped shut like that forever as its own sort of statement, but I also really want to see if it still has all the contents (feels that way) or if they removed items from it when they had it open. The navy meal is intact. The package also contained a letter from the customs agent stating that the beef items were removed from the package. The other two items are pork and pork was listed as prohibited as well so I'm just assuming no one could read Chinese? I don't know for sure what the thought process was but this was definitely an interesting experience overall. I'd do it again if I could convince the seller to mark the item as camping goods or military collectibles or something (this seller said they understood the request but marked the package "noodles") so I'm sure that made it a higher priority to search as imported food.

So let that be a lesson to anyone still wondering, yes you can get stuff mailed into the US but it doesn't always work out like you hope it will and sometimes it's just downright strange as hell! Order only when you can afford to basically throw that money in the garbage and be pleasantly surprised if something arrives unharmed

[Ruleryak]

Just realized this thread was about dealing with oletroop on eBay being a risk. The link is old so it doesn't lead to any rations anymore and I misunderstood because around the same time I purchased from a seller in China and just assumed that's what the OP found too and that was why it was a risk. In any case, haven't had any bad experiences myself with oletroop so I just wanted to make sure I updated this post to make sure that was clear. My last post is still on topic technically and should be interesting to someone so I'll refrain from deleting it

[Bypah]

Most of oletroop's rations are local.He has them at his home.
Those where from him???

[Ruleryak]

No no - like I mentioned in my last post I had not realized that the topic was about an auction oletroop had. I had just recently snagged PLA rations from eBay and thought the thread was referencing that auction mistakenly. On a later note though I did buy Chinese rations from oletroop a few months later in the year and was a bit disappointed that they had holes punched in them (like they had been hung on a store shelf) - but other than that I was very glad to have found a source for those rations within the US so customs couldn't rain on my parade I wish oletroop would respond to pm's on here or messages on eBay though - if he has more to offer I'd love to buy him out!

In any case - the package from mainland China that got ripped apart (the package pictured above) was marked as "noodles" so that was probably why it was stopped. I had requested that it be marked "camping supplies" or "military collectible" or anything non-food related but there was a definite language barrier so a word of warning to anyone looking to ship internationally with someone speaking another language - be very very clear and careful!