Way back on February 2nd, I found a set of Final Fantasy IV, V and VI for the Super Famicom. All boxed with books, nice condition. Jumped on it and hit the Buy It Now button. Never dawned on me what the shipping method was.
So for the past five weeks, I've been agonizing watching the shipping info change back and forth from "Processed Through Sort Facility Tokyo Int D" to "origin post is preparing shipment." It would do this flip-flop daily. I finally had to file a claim with eBay Tuesday as I didn't want too much time to go by and they would reply "Hey, you waited to long. Your beat!" Well, what do I see yesterday? My package has finally arrived in New Jersey!
Doing a little research, I found that SAL shipping is where they put your package on a plane...if there is room. So your package is bottom of the barrel on their priority list. Plane gets full? Oops. Your package sits. Next plane gets full? Yep-your package sits again. I've probably checked that shipping status about 600 times in the last five weeks and never intend to do that again.
And it remains to be seen what condition the package will arrive in. I've learned from experience, the longer your item is in transit, the more it will have it's ass kicked. I'm hoping this is not the case and from the seller's feedback, he packages everything really well. I have my fingers crossed that my games will make it to me relatively unscathed.
Moral of the story, I don't think I will be buying any import items that only offer SAL shipping again. It's an agonizing wait for someone like me with OCD and even now that it has "shown up on the radar" so to speak, I can't get the thought out of my head that I'm going to receive a crushed, broken mess and not the beautiful, boxed games I purchased.
