Need some advice on flying in under the radar.

ExDex1x1

ExDex1x1

Active Member
Alright so I moved into my new house about 5 months ago, and things have finally settled down with my job, I'm all settled in and I finally have the time to get my dream grow started.

I have a gigantic basement, a 35'x25'x10' room, the room is all open with the exception of the center which is where the stair case is located along with a storage space which takes up 10'x8' of space. Ridiculous amount of room basically (one of the main reasons I bought the place).

Basically, I'm going to use every inch of the basement to grow and I have a fairly large budget to work with since I've been saving towards this project for the better part of a decade.

However, now that I have everything all set to go I find myself running into a terrible problem I forgot to account for, I wanted to buy everything in cash, and drive it into my home little by little so that I didn't attract attention (medical state, but Im paranoid for security reasons considering the amount of time and money this is going to involve). The problem with that plan, is that the nearest hydro shop is an 8 hour drive and its a very small shop, they also refuse to do special orders (dicks). I could literally go in and buy every light and ballast in the place and still be nowhere near my goal. When I went in they literally had 10 ballasts in total, only 2 of them were 1000w and 4 600w.

This basically leaves me with one way of getting equipment, ordering it all online. Clearly with the amount of space I'm working with I'm going to be ordering a shit ton of items (building everything I can on my own but I'll still need lights/fans/ballasts/timers/envirocontrollers ect.) and I don't exactly want to order everything in at once and have a GIANT pile of growing supplies sitting on my front stoop, or have the neighbors see some delivery service carry in 50-some boxes of lights and such into my home.



What would you guys suggest for bringing in the equipment without being noticed? I've considered buying things little by little, but I'm planning on being done with the basic construction of my tables, repainting and other modifications by the end of May, and I don't want to be stuck waiting around for equipment to trickle in over 3-4month period.


Any ideas or anyone know of companies that ship discretely (I have zero experience with online ordering I'm a big fan of cash-in-hand anonymity)

Any advice very much appreciated!
 
abecsta

abecsta

Active Member
i cant help to much but ill offer up what i can :)
online you can use a prepaid visa to pay. thats as good as cash i think they call them prezzy cards over here
if you have some friends who you trust or what ever you can ship to their houses at the same time as shipping to your own.
the boxes wont me clearly labeled so dont worry to much about the neighbours
but if you have paranoia about neighbors realizing and stealing your hard work do some other renovations at same time or start a hobby that uses some of the same gear like a tropical reef tank

Im not sure about this but.. is it possible for you to be the one who picks up the supplies from the shipping company.
 
bryon209

bryon209

Active Member
well the problem isnt really that bad... your order can be filled from just a few providers what i .would do is is find i decent company online with decent prices ...you are gonna probly have to go to at least three different sites
lghts newts and hardware.... email the website you choose and see if they can work with you on shipping and query as to how the boxes will arrive(bulk Shipping) and make sure they can deliver your entire order at one time....and break up each order into weeks ....when your packages arrive as long as there arent big signs on the side that say i grow weed then you will be alright also after you harvest...open a decent grow shop and blow every thing away in a hundred mile radius..........
 
ExDex1x1

ExDex1x1

Active Member
abecsta said:
i cant help to much but ill offer up what i can :)
online you can use a prepaid visa to pay. thats as good as cash i think they call them prezzy cards over here
if you have some friends who you trust or what ever you can ship to their houses at the same time as shipping to your own.
the boxes wont me clearly labeled so dont worry to much about the neighbours
but if you have paranoia about neighbors realizing and stealing your hard work do some other renovations at same time or start a hobby that uses some of the same gear like a tropical reef tank

Im not sure about this but.. is it possible for you to be the one who picks up the supplies from the shipping company.
Click to expand...
Yeah I've got the prepaid visa covered, the big issue for me is just the sheer volume of shit being brought to my house lol. Unfortunately friend's houses aren't an option since I had to move states for work none of my buddies from back home are anywhere remotely close.

I hadnt considered the pickup from the shipping company I'll have to do some looking into that. Guess renting a uhaul and picking all of it up at once wouldn't be that bad.
 
MIway

MIway

Active Member
Actually did a big o/l order a while ago, but had a pretty good friend. Had 2 pallets of gear drop shipped to him... brought it home in truck loads myself.

But, I would much rather do the same w a local place any more... just easier to get warranty/exchanges taken care of... and all that I have ever worked with will give a bulk order discount, just need to ask.


Edit... oops, ya already said the friend thing... ;-)
 
I

incognegro999

Well-Known Member
or find one of the mailbox america places or something similar, open a mailbox there get everything sent and pick it up.
 
abecsta

abecsta

Active Member
yea one thing your lucky is if a neighbor asks what your doing with a truck full of boxes just say your moving the last of your stuff in

and like Byron said it wont me marked "i grow weed"
but take a few extra boxes when you pick up just in case it does say some thing on it like carbon filter

hope to see this build :)
 
BoomerBloomer57

BoomerBloomer57

Well-Known Member
I tell you what,,,,,,,

Equipment fails.

Driving 8+ hours to get failed equipment replaced sucks but it's better than waiting on ups. Find a reliable Hydrostore.

I've done biz with the same one for years. Something fails they replace it. Loading up a room that size is gonna be pricy.
Things are bound to go on the fritz. I know it sucks to have to drive but using one source has many advantages.

Yer 10 longer and 10 wider than I am but the same height.

Tell me what ya think,,,,,,
 

Attachments

303

303

Well-Known Member
Order ballasts online (cheaper), get yer hoods from hydro store because they're fucking huge to be delivered by ups. I ordered 4 XXXL Magnum hoods online. It looked ridiculous when I got home. Fuckin boxes stacked to the roof. Ooops...
 
L

LostReefSponger

Active Member
dont have any suggestions about ordering so much stuff without being noticed besides doing it in chunks. If I were you I would start working on my room and order the stuff as I need it, that way you are keeping yourself busy while you wait for things and they aren't sitting around in piles but instead they are being put in place instead. All I got though, good luck man!
 
BBYY

BBYY

Well-Known Member
ExDex1x1 said:
Alright so I moved into my new house about 5 months ago, and things have finally settled down with my job, I'm all settled in and I finally have the time to get my dream grow started.

I have a gigantic basement, a 35'x25'x10' room, the room is all open with the exception of the center which is where the stair case is located along with a storage space which takes up 10'x8' of space. Ridiculous amount of room basically (one of the main reasons I bought the place).

Basically, I'm going to use every inch of the basement to grow and I have a fairly large budget to work with since I've been saving towards this project for the better part of a decade.

However, now that I have everything all set to go I find myself running into a terrible problem I forgot to account for, I wanted to buy everything in cash, and drive it into my home little by little so that I didn't attract attention (medical state, but Im paranoid for security reasons considering the amount of time and money this is going to involve). The problem with that plan, is that the nearest hydro shop is an 8 hour drive and its a very small shop, they also refuse to do special orders (dicks). I could literally go in and buy every light and ballast in the place and still be nowhere near my goal. When I went in they literally had 10 ballasts in total, only 2 of them were 1000w and 4 600w.

This basically leaves me with one way of getting equipment, ordering it all online. Clearly with the amount of space I'm working with I'm going to be ordering a shit ton of items (building everything I can on my own but I'll still need lights/fans/ballasts/timers/envirocontrollers ect.) and I don't exactly want to order everything in at once and have a GIANT pile of growing supplies sitting on my front stoop, or have the neighbors see some delivery service carry in 50-some boxes of lights and such into my home.



What would you guys suggest for bringing in the equipment without being noticed? I've considered buying things little by little, but I'm planning on being done with the basic construction of my tables, repainting and other modifications by the end of May, and I don't want to be stuck waiting around for equipment to trickle in over 3-4month period.


Any ideas or anyone know of companies that ship discretely (I have zero experience with online ordering I'm a big fan of cash-in-hand anonymity)

Any advice very much appreciated!
Click to expand...
I would drive a little further and find a better shop. I am sure there is another one just as close, you have a 8 hr driving radius right now, There HAS to be one in some direction.
 
collective gardener

collective gardener

Well-Known Member
I agree with BoomerBloomer. Find a store. Out of the 18 didital ballasts we run, 2 of them were bad out of the box. We just walked em back intot eh store and walked out with 2 new ones. Most grow stores will special order. We do all of our orders that way. I just email the grow store my order including item numbers right out of Sunlight or Hydrofarm, and pick it up in a couple days. I have doen alot of negotating with grow stores. Here's the deal: the best discount they will give you is 25% off retail. They will kick and scream all the way, but with a 10K+ order, you'll get it. Make sure to tell them that you expect the 25% off on every order...even the small ones. Use that first big order as your leverage for the discount.
 
TruenoAE86coupe

TruenoAE86coupe

Moderator
It is not easy to find hydro shops, they aren't always the best at advertising. If you are in a medical state i would go to your state in the medical section and ask if anyone knows of a hydro shop around a town thats 50-100 miles from yours, if there is, then you have already cut a lot of time off of your trip, and by saying another city, haven't given away your location. You are really going to need to "befriend" your hydro store owner for a project like this, someone you can call on immediately when you loose that ballast or fan. All of this equipment wears out, and most have a decent warranty, but you play hell trying to get a lot of websites to replace anything, and you have to pay shipping, and wait.
As far as shipping, a lot of online companies ship in the factory boxes when possible, don't know if you have ever seen a hydrofarm reflector box, they are a banner for what is inside. Ask for shipping in plain brown boxes for any shipments.
 
roundplanet

roundplanet

Well-Known Member
I live in New Jersey, "The Garden State" (if you're a nationalized Vietnamese, from Canada, lol, semi resent huge bust, the dumb asses were burning off their garbage weed in the fire place and a cop drove by and smelled it, yep so much for the million plus they spend a year on interdiction, the states biggest bust in years was a straight up accident, lol, lol.) What was I talking about, oh yeah supplies, yeah can't help, no, no, just kidding. Google Hydro stores, no matter how far from you, than call them up and place an order using your pre-paid card. Make it a weekend or something and have fun going to pick up your order. In New Jersey I don't have a problem placing orders if they are pre-paid, in fact I think they like it that way. Good Luck, I really hope you have fun doing this, don't stress bro.
 
ExDex1x1

ExDex1x1

Active Member
So after digging through the local phone book *yes the actual physical phonebook, they werent listed online* I found 3 shops within about 2-3 hours of my place.

So perfect plan now basically, I'm going to head out to get there right as theyre closing, load up, head home, and by that time neighbors will be in their jammies and I'll unload the goods in peace! Now I just have to finish building all my trays, setting up my supply and drain-to-waste lines, repaint the room, rip out the carpet (Concrete underneath), paint the concrete flat white, and tear out this drop ceiling.

Btw drop ceiling is the night mare of all nightmares. If you ever consider putting these in, don't. This shit is seriously attached with 1 1/4" screws every 3 fucking feet across the whole basement. Definitely cant support the weight of lights either. Gonna be the bane of my existence for the next few days.

Expecting to have a rough outline of my setup by the end of this month, and have all of my tables plumbed and ready to rock by the end of May. Hopefully lights and CO2 burner along with timers and everything all in place by June.

Gonna be a long haul since I'm working solo on this bad boy but this has been my dream since I was a young little stoner mowing lawns so I could go get blazed.

15 years of working my balls off at a job I absolutely hated, investing wisely and living in a butthole apartment finally gets to pay off living in my dream house building an epic grow and retiring in 5 years at the ripe old age of 39. Dream big, smoke often, work your ass off and things have a great way of working out.

Thanks for all your help guys! Back to tearing out this fucking ceiling now!
 
abecsta

abecsta

Active Member
wow phone books kicking it oldschool
don't forget to take before pictures it would be sweet to see the changes you make.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top