I think Steve needs to be SPECIFIC in his accusations. Saying "I have found many online vendors shipping the these engines illegally in the mail" is complete B.S.
Steve, did you actually purchase the motors, and receive them in the mail? I have found that looking at a website is not a good indicator for shipping fee's - especially in a specialty hobby like ours.
There are some motor vendors that don't put the Hazmat notice on their online stores, but it will show up when you go to complete your order. Others won't charge it at all, yet the box shows up with a hazmat label. I purchased from ARR a while back and forgot to 'add' a hazmat fee to my cart, which was not obvious.
I just purchased something from Giant Leap this morning, and Ed emailed me saying the shipping calculation was too high, and he was refunding me $6!
I just received a box for Christmas from Hobbylinc which had several G80 motors, and was clearly marked hazmat, yet the bill of lading shows shipping charges that are less than just the hazmat fee (my wife needs to learn how to take these off the box before putting them under the tree :>)
For the record, I am not affiliated with any vendor, although I seem to bankroll several of them
Other vendors, take note. While I think Steve is crying wolf a bit a bit here, he has the best "specials", and "blowout" section in Rocketry. Forces me to check out his website at least once a week to see what's new.