Cels destroyed during shipping?

Sorry, my post wasnt clear. It was a suggestion to Mahoro...also for anyone buying internationally.

As for being charged $10 for SAL is getting a little ripped off. You can prob send the plastic case with 3 cels for only $7. As for being cheap, I meant $12 for cardboard opposed to $15-18 for plastic case shipping. Not EMS or Small Packet. You can send the plastic case either method.

I have a bidder who always bids on my cels. maXXr_reXXzy always emails me with the same message that his PO doesnt handle his package very carefully, so please pack yada yada. I take alittle extra care for his packages.
Just a suggestion, and doesnt take too much time.

Oh I agree especially with the PO box situation, the USPS do not take care or heed of warnings when you write fragile do not bend. I've received so many items jammed into my PO box it is disgusting!

As for telling sellers in JP, well IMO that should be a given. Failing to do that is basically assuming they know how to pack and as most of us know, they do not. Still, good customer service always boils down to predicting and responding to the reasonable needs of ones customers... packaging items well is one of them, especially for fragile items.

Lastly for the DS's I always make the effort to repeat myself and tell them specific instructions. It does not matter to me if I've dealt with them 50 times or just five, I still remind them time and time again... that way, there is no way in hell they can claim, but but you never told us.

I think the time has come for you to play hardball with this seller. You should tell him that you want your money back. (Assuming that you do.) If he doesn't agree, file complaints with both eBay and PayPal. (I'm assuming that you used PayPal and didn't send an IPMO.)

This will probably end any possibility of your purchasing cels from him in the future, but I doubt you would do so anyway. It may get you negative feedback, so it's your decision whether the money is more important than your feedback rating.

The issue of insurance is one that is debated on the discussion boards of eBay all the time. My own view, as an eBay seller and buyer, is that it's the seller's responsibility to get the auction items to the buyer in good condition. If the items don't arrive in good condition, the buyer needs to return them, and the seller needs to refund the purchase price. That being the case, the question of whether to insure or not rests with the seller, not the buyer, since it's a question of how much risk the seller wants to take. This means that when I'm the seller, I always pay the costs of insurance and delivery confirmation. It also means that your getting a refund shouldn't depend on whether the item was insured.

Having said all of this, if I were in your shoes, I think I would not do anything except leave feedback that mentioned the poor packaging. If you had paid $300 instead of $30, my advice would be different. But by the time that you pay return postage to Japan and go through all the other hassles, your $30 investment would have shrunk considerably.

I've bought a few things from this seller and I've been lucky to have received them in the clear plastic folders. I'm pretty sure that some came SAL, so I think your problem is really the result of the packaging rather than the shipping method.

I buy tons of cels from this seller and have always been lucky to receive my cels in perfect shape. They do tend to ship with little protection but I haven't had anything damaged yet. Actually, most of my orders contain 10 cels or more so there is usually enough thickness to prevent bending. The only problem I ever really had was when they forgot to send me two cels I had ordered in a large cel order. They got back with me within a few day and quickly sent the two that had been overlooked.

On another note, I absolutely love those plastic sleeves they send your cels and backgrounds in! I have about 5 of them now and use them for my most valued cels. I wish I could find them to purchase and may even ask the seller about them.

Sugarflower,

Have they ever sent cels to you in anything besides the nifty clear plastic oversized sleeves?