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11/2/2005 How Stuff Works: The Black MarketWhile on staff duty, I had an epiphany that some of the biggest customers of American black market goods in Korea are the ever increasing number of expatriates, such as Shawn or William G. Apparently, many of the foreigners who have jobs such as teaching conversational English in Korea can buy the stuff right here in Itaewon under the nose of the unassuming (or bribed) authorities, who have bosses more worried about such things as curfew and off-limits lists than stopping drunk drivers and black marketeers.
Anyways, there are two major variations of black marketing here in Korea. The type normally found in Areas I and III (Gyeonggi-do), where third-country nationals such as Russians and Filipinos are employed in the sex trade more frequently, involves contract payoffs. Soldiers who meet a juicy girl and fall in love often desire to marry the girl. The major problem is that she often owes thousands of dollars to her Korean pimp which must be worked off by whoring herself to Soldiers. The Soldier, not having that kind of money, makes a deal with the Korean bar owner to pay her off with goods purchased on post at the PX and commissary once he is allowed to marry the girl. A contract is agreed upon where the Soldier and his wife must provide a certain amount of goods per month, which is not overly burdensome because the Koreans are crafty to not cause the family to exceed its monthly spending limit, which would trigger a black market audit. The Korean whoremonger, having several women pimped out to Soldiers in such a manner, can afford to choose which types of alcohol, hygiene products, and foods are in demand and adjust the monthly purchase request accordingly. The spouse pushes a big baby carriage full of goods off post while her friend babysits and the husband is at work. Once the Korean has the goods, he or she transfers them to an outlet for resale to English teachers at twice the suggested retail price or more.
The second technique of black marketeering is more prevalent here in Area II (Seoul), and it involves Koreans who have access to post, either by virtue [sic] of being married to an American, or by working on post or having relatives who work on post. As a result of this, one often sees an inappropriate distribution of Korean women driving Lexus, Mercedes, BMWs, etc. on Yongsan. A lot of the US Embassy workers and spouses are in on this scheme. The technique is heavily dependent on the Internet--Korean auction sites and secret chat rooms in particular, which require a Korean national ID. People who want black market goods post items wanted and how much they'll pay for them, and the Korean spouse will purchase that item on post, arrange for a rendezvous point, and handoff the goods for cash. The purchaser, in turn, will take the goods to a nearby outlet for sale to foreigners. Many restaurants buy most of their rice and meats in this manner. Also, since AAFES puts out their sale flyers a week in advance, the wives advertise these sale items on the Korean auction sites during the week and buy them up on Friday as soon as the sale opens. So when poor old Gardner goes shopping for something on Sunday, sometimes all the sale items have already been snatched up by the Koreans.
A slight variation of this method can be labeled the "gray market." This is often done by Korean-Americans and their spouses. The wife will search for particular items in high demand on Korean auction sites. She provides a list of these things for the husband to search for on American auction sites, such as E-bay, and the husband looks for items which will reap 50% profit or more. He has the items shipped to his APO address and then hands them over to his wife, who ships them to the final buyer via Korean postal service. Before long, the wife is driving a European or Japanese luxury car, and the couple are taking vacations to Thailand once per month!
So next time you see a poor, homesick Canadian teacher sulking on the subway, be kind and give her a box of Kraft dinner so she doesn't have to support the goddamn Korean black marketeers! Comments (14)
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