
An underground Facebook market for rare meat - empath75
https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/inside-facebooks-underground-market-for-rare-meat
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cheeze
They are almost certainly talking about "Meat Street"

I've been a member in the beer ones for years. Happy to answer any questions.

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sytelus
This whole article is nonsensical to the point I think this is some sort of
guerrilla marketing, but may be you can answer these:

1\. Is there anyway to verify authenticity of the goods? Why anyone would
trust this?

2\. Many items you can buy without complexity of raffle and at lower price. So
why even bother?

3\. How does raffle makes it legal from non-legal from Facebook perspective?

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flounder3
The secondary market for whiskey is quite real. The article is remarkably
accurate on that accord, so it is very easy to believe the meat market is
similar.

With regard to booze: there is no way to truly verify or authenticate until
you drink it against a known good bottle. For pricey bottles, most groups
require detailed pictures of the laser code as well as the top foil measured
against a ruler. Ultimately the only security is the attestation of references
from previous transactions, but many of the large groups have been banned
recently, which has been a huge hit to references.

E.g. The MSRP of Pappy Van Winkle 15yr is $99. It goes for $999 on the
secondary market (as well as in 95% of liquor stores in CA). Many of the
raffle pages offered a shot at these bottles for like $100 x 10 slots, etc.

AFAIK, it's only illegal to sell or ship booze. And again, AFAIK, it is not
illegal to buy it second hand for personal consumption.

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ryanmercer
>AFAIK, it's only illegal to sell or ship booze. And again, AFAIK, it is not
illegal to buy it second hand for personal consumption.

That's going to vary by state and country.

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unnouinceput
"A sucker is born every minute" \- Nixon, during his famous '72 China visit.

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cosmodisk
Leaving aside idiocy of buying meat from random, probably untraceable sources,
I'm more interested in the logistics part of this.Assuming a good % of buyers
are Americans,how an Octopus from Spain or a Unicorn from Sunnyland get
delivered via customs? As far as I know, US can be very very picky about
importing some random food... Anyone could elaborate on this?

~~~
ryanmercer
>I'm more interested in the logistics part of this.Assuming a good % of buyers
are Americans,how an Octopus from Spain or a Unicorn from Sunnyland get
delivered via customs? As far as I know, US can be very very picky about
importing some random food... Anyone could elaborate on this?

I clear international freight through customs for a living, a good deal of
importing small amounts of stuff is on the honor system. Sure, customs will
randomly search shipments but I can think of many ways I could increase the
likelihood of an individual getting something past customs. I will share them
all, or even elaborate in any real detail but these tare all data points that
could be considered:

\- description

\- value

\- country of origin

\- Declaring it as a REDACTED and/or as REDACTED

\- Sending it as REDACTED

Then there are methods of packaging that can also increase chances of avoiding
detection.

Look, people ship illegal drugs internationally daily via darknet market
purchases (I mean, open your DNM of choice and you can have a kilogram of
cocaine shipped to your door domestically and internationally, clearly it's
not all getting seized otherwise the listings would dry up as customers got
burned), you also have gobs and gobs of counterfeit goods, goods from
sanctioned/embargoed countries, etc all slipping by Customs (at least in the
United States). A lot of it is purely due to the fact that, unless the inspect
a package, it's an honor system "I claim this is what is in this box I'm
sending to Bob in America" combined with the sheer volume of packages.

I mean, on average PER DAY in fiscal year 2018, Customs processed 95,890
entries [1] of merchandise at air, land, and sea ports of entry. Most of that,
never gets reviewed by a human being on the end of Customs as a lot of it is
electronically transmitted via ABI and if any number of computer decisions
don't flag it, it clears within seconds.

[1] [https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/typical-day-
fy2018](https://www.cbp.gov/newsroom/stats/typical-day-fy2018)

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EdwardDiego
I would love to be able to buy more game meats.

While I can buy farmed venison, it's always red deer, and I vastly prefer
fallow, far more tender and far less gamey.

But as I lack the time go hunting these days, farmed red is really my only
option.

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lxhmj
An Iberian octopus is an impossible-to-score good? As someone who lives in
Spain I disagree.

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jarfil
Right now, Spain is importing over twice as much octopus as it's exporting.
Actual Iberian octopus prices have gone up over a 400%, while most of the
locally consumed (cheaper) stuff comes from Marocco and Mauritania.

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aaron695
Except, as they admit, it's not rare meat?

Just a gambling group.

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userbinator
I suspect it's a pun on "rare" in the sense of "uncooked".

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whatshisface
> _“It’s one thing to buy a spot for a razzle where the winner gets a shipment
> from Snake River Farms,” he explains. “But when someone is shipping
> something they made at home, I consider it borderline absurd, primarily due
> to the sanitation and safety concerns.”_

I eat almost nothing other than food made at home. I guess the government must
be very concerned about what that could do to my safety.

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EGreg
And on the other hand, we have this:

[https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QUb7xKBM9G8](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=QUb7xKBM9G8)

I have spoke to chefs who say they re-use chicken that was dropped on the
floor, no problem.

Somehow the government doesn’t prevent this:

[https://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2010/09/chef...](https://www.epicurious.com/archive/blogs/editor/2010/09/chef-
secrets-cooking-sick-roaches-and-reusing-bread.html)

~~~
ivanhoe
Someone spitting on pizza is just a psychological issue as pizza is baked on
very high temperature for long enough, so it will be effectively sterilized...
same with the meat dropped on the floor, as long as it's prepared right after
that so that bacteria couldn't multiply and penetrate deeper.

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b_tterc_p
It’s more than possible for non-living but still harmful substances/chemicals
to be on the floor.

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ivanhoe
in substantial amounts and then not vaporize while cooking? I guess it's
possible, but honestly I'd worry much more about the hygiene of meat
processing plants and what happens to meat during the storage and transport

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whenchamenia
It is often the toxins from bacteria, rather than the bacteria itself that
makes you sick. Don't play when it comes to meat.

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ivanhoe
We're discussing very specific scenario where there's no time for bacteria to
produce a significant amount of toxins in those few minutes from falling on
the floor to being prepared, and also the majority (although not all) of
deadly meat bacteria toxins like botox are inactivated by cooking. Anyway,
it's not that I like eating food from a floor or having someone spit in my
dishes, I just argue that strictly sanitary these are not as big deal as
they're psychologically.

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EGreg
You discount viruses that may be transmitted by saliva.

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ivanhoe
you discount that so many people don't wash their hands after using toilet,
and they cook your food later... especially in fast food restaurants... and
yet we survive...

