Seamail?

[Aussie2B]

Any of you ever have your stuff shipped by Seamail? I'm making a relatively heavy order of manga, and normally I'd go with SAL but I'm thinking about going with Seamail to save the 10 bucks. I'm not especially urgent to have them, but I'm a little worried about the safety of the books. Obviously not as much could happen to them as games, but I still don't want bent or squashed books. People say that SAL can take several weeks, but often I've found that my orders would arrive in about a week, if not less. I just can't decide. o_O

[Iron Draggon]

I've heard that seamail takes a month or more to arrive. No idea on the risk of damage during shipping though. I've never tried it that way yet myself.

[maxlords]

Seamail has a much higher risk of damage. I'd recomend SAL, but it's up to you. They REALLY aren't careful with seamail packages from my understanding.

[davidleeroth]

I've used seamail to ship big lots (with ~$40 savings compared to SAL) and I've never had damaged goods or anything.

The drawback is it's obviously v-e-r-y s-l-o-w. It's taken me up to 7 weeks to get my stuff and usually after a month I swear never to use seamail again, it's just not worth the concern. If you've wanted them enough to buy them in the first place, you'll cry after them in a month.
If it's only $10 difference, I say go with SAL.

[chaoticjelly]

Ive used Sea Mail often,

Its fine,

Of course any damage, will occur if the stuffs badly packed, but most Asian sellers package stuff very nicely 8-)

[geelw]

softcover books don't travel well by sea, period. unless you ask the shipper to pack your stuff in an airtight box, you're taking a risk. if you're a working stiff, the ten bucks will come back to you in your next paycheck, no? ;)

[Aussie2B]

That's the problem, I haven't had a job in years so every tiny bit of money counts. :P

I went with SAL, though. I didn't feel like it was worth the worry. I've bought from this store lots of times before, and while I wouldn't call their packaging bad, it's still not enough to really protect the books from a beating. They usually stack two rows of books in a box roughly the size of the rows, they put a tiny bit of bubblewrap around the books, and that's it. Even with really quick shipping, I've often received the boxes with one corner a bit squashed. It's never affected the books any, but in my mind I multiply that damage by the length of time seamail takes, and it doesn't sound good. o_O