Wanted to know if anyone has ordered via Airmail from Japan to the US lately and been having similar problems.

Two of my packages from eBay were sent SAL and both have yet to show up at customs in NY. To me, SAL is Slow Ass Lard shipping but it beats paying $15 for EMS (that also requires me to show up at my local post). Typically, I'm OK waiting 15-17 days for things to get here from Japan but things of mine are seemingly getting lost or taking longer.

I also ordered something from Amazon Japan which usually gets here within a 7-14 days and it's seemingly late. Was wondering if there's any huge delays going on with shipments to the USA. I'm convinced two of my packages are lost and those sellers have refunded me on both.

Well, I know that they claim SAL can take 12 weeks.

Not sure about SAL, but something I'm getting via Surface/Sea mail arrived within my state yesterday after 2 months of transit, so it has to be better than that.

I live in NJ and my SAL orders usually take 7-14 days but my last order did seem a bit slower than usual insofar as I just casually wondered why I hadn't gotten it yet but not long enough to inquire about it

Amazon.co.jp is still stupid fast. I ordered that Final Fight album and it shipped and arrived in 2 days.

Same here. That's because Amazon warehouse goods are shipped via DHL. Because of the exchange rate, it's around $9 and faster than most of my inside country purchases. They don't f*ck around.

They track it if it moves from coffee to end table. I, too, always get my goods in 2 days. Love that.

Don't love how some retailers, like Otaku.com, mark up like the dickens and still charge $9 for pitiful SAL "service" (yes, I know they have EMS). At least charge the market frickin' rate for that crap.

Yes, I have a CDJapan order that shipped by unregistered SAL five weeks ago that I'm about to presume lost.

The last time I sent some stuff home, around Christmastime, SAL shipping took about four weeks, and even though they were registered, they never once showed up as having arrived in New York when I tried to track them, and just showed up at my parents' front door one day.

Two of my recent shipments went reported missing due to maxing out the estimated delivery time policy on eBay via SAL taking over a month+, I can only assume they're within some netherworld right now over the open sea. I'm guessing SAL shipments are overwhelmed right now and will likely take much more time. I'm betting one April day they will show up, unexpectedly.

The odds of losing eight orders I'm currently wondering about are slim as I've used the service before but never had anything never show up.

I've heard some speculation that last month's West Coast port strikes have caused a slowdown of international shipments, although I'm not sure how that would affect airmail, except perhaps as a ripple effect.

So, my unregistered SAL parcel arrived after exactly six weeks.  The box had taken a bit of a beating.  Could be that it was wedged somewhere and later discovered, or maybe it was just subject to more abuse for having been in the mailstream for so long.

You've given me hope. I have a bunch of Amazon JP CDs also taking longer than they've ever taken before. Even craptastic SAL gets here within just under a month. I imagined it was due to the strike and this makes sense. No shipping company will even acknowledge there is/was one...

Well wouldn't you know. About 6 items from Japan Post and SAL came in today, after 2 months for some. I've never lost a package through SAL but have also never waited this long. Oh well, nothing was abused either!