[foley]

The Silk Road and similar protect the seller. There is just no way to protect the buyer, you are buying a physical product and at some point have to take physical possession of it there is no way to avoid this.

Just as with buying drugs face to face you have to trust that the dealer is not malicious, is there a risk? definitely. But just as in the real world law enforcement have little interest in wasting their time on buyers.

[asveikau]

No way to avoid this, so we might as well just send everything via USPS to your front door? Sounds like a bit of a copout.

It seems to me if you go out of your way to hide your identity you should, um, hide your identity. That would mean not trusting the post office just as you would not trust a sniffable network. Arrange a drop in a public place or some such. (Or do I see too many movies?)

[sneak]

This is harder than you think, especially with mail.