Stealth shipping - what does it actually look like?
I've had the exact same experience with stealth shipping. The whole point is that it just looks like junk mail or some random personal letter. In my case, it came inside a plain white envelope, and inside was a birthday card with the IDs tucked behind the fold. The card itself was generic—no glitter or anything that'd draw attention. You gotta physically open the card and flip through the layers to find anything. Even the envelope's return address was a generic residential street name in a different state, which honestly adds to the cover.
Courier-wise, this particular shipment went through regular USPS first-class mail. No tracking number, no signature required, just a standard 50¢ stamp. That's the beauty of it—domestic letter mail flies under the radar because it never gets flagged for extra screening. International shipments might be different, but for domestic you're relying on the Postal Service's normal sorting machines. It passed through a couple of regional hubs (one in the Northeast, then the local distribution center) without any hiccups. The envelope got a bit of a crease from the sorting rollers, but the card inside kept the IDs flat and undamaged.
Packaging durability with this method is actually better than you'd think. The birthday card provides a stiff cardboard layer that prevents bending, and once you tape the IDs inside the fold, they're not going to shift around. The outer envelope is standard weight paper, so it's not rip-proof, but for the few days it's in transit that's usually fine. If you're worried about water damage, some people slip the whole thing in a self-sealing sandwich bag, but I didn't feel the need.
Customs is hardly even a factor with domestic letter mail. It's not going through any international checkpoints, so the only risk is the mail being lost or opened by accident. In my case it arrived in about five business days—not lightning fast, but perfectly reasonable for first-class post. Overall, the stealth approach works because it exploits how the postal system processes high volumes of personal correspondence with minimal scrutiny. The key is keeping it small, flat, and inconspicuous. If it looks like a birthday card, it gets treated like one.