SwiftVets.com

[Snipe]

OK. I'm still smoking. I went up to Sam's to get my bi-monthly tobacco fix. As is getting to be normal these days, I had to wait for this chubby, swarthy guy who's first language obviously wasn't English to complete his transaction. Over 100 cartons of cigarettes. But the kicker was, he paid for it in $20 bills. Just observing, there was three piles of $500 on the counter plus the remainder. Probably about $1800 in all sitting on that counter. The guy has a commercial ID card, so he's not paying taxes on it. He's probably running a convience store or something. I see these guys up there all the time buying smokes, but this was the first time I've seen someone paying cash. Ususally it's a check or card like everyone else. I saw something on TV some months ago about quick money being made on cigarettes, but the scam eludes me. Does anyone know how this works, or am I just being paranoid. Oh, and everytime I see this sort of transaction, it's always for something over 100 cartons.
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Tin Can Sailor

[Guest]

couple guys in jersey i see now and then pickin up cigs for people
guessin they make 5-10 bucks on each one every couple of weeks
so pretty good extra cash for a road trip

[I B Squidly]

Didn't know Sam's (Club?) had that good a price but they do have a tax stamp. It makes a difference for a small retailer who doesn't want the cost or hassle of direct distribution. You better believe the state has mystery shoppers checking stamps.

A carton of smokes in Az is $30+ (name brands are $40+). I buy untaxed smokes from tribal (SmartSmoker.com) reservations for $11. I also have some home grown (NativeSeed.org) though I haven't mastered curing. Were I to go commercial with it I'd have big tobacco on me as well as the government. I was buying American Euro-market brands at similar prices but when Phillip Morris couldn't legally stopp them they sabotaged shipments and destroyed them with 3rd party torts.
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"KILL ALL THE LAWYERS!"

-Wlm Shakespeare

[GenrXr]

[Uisguex Jack]

I'm not sure what angle you are seeing in IL, but down here in the South in the vicinity of I95 and the tax free state of DL... it's all about the taxes.

The busiest pub in my town has been denied the right to sell tobacco after having been caught three times for selling Cig's bought in Dover with no tax or tax stamp.

Many years ago there was a expose on T.V. demonstrating how truck drivers had a large black market when driving far North from the deep South. The thing was to buy as many cig's as there was room in the 18 wheeler to hold, then sell them far North where the profit was something like 30% right off the bat.

I think Ted Kennedy's father might have helped refine concept.

I'm pretty sure there is still cigarette smuggling on the Canadian border, it's huge business in Southern Italy.

[Snipe]

Yeah. It's a tax thing I believe. The thing is that you don't have to smuggle across national borders or even state borders to make a buck. In Peoria, a carton of taxed Marlboros is about $34 at Sams, but Cook County (Chicago) runs a lot higher. So one would think that there would be a profit to be made smuggling to Chicago from downstate. They would eventually have to pay the local freight just to keep in business.

I've seen the commercial folks shopping Sams for years, but it's just in the last couple of years that I've seen the really heavy sales of cigarettes.
I know that when I go to Ft. Campbell on I-24, that on the return trip there is a highway sign just into Illinois with a warning about smuggling cigarettes. I haven't gotten much more than a glance at it because of traffic, but I keep looking.

Anyhow, I saw something about it some time back about funding for Mosques but I can't nail it down.
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Tin Can Sailor

[Stevie]

weren't they buying down south cheap and selling up in Canada?
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Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged.