>>2316322I've never ever ever had a SAL packet go missing. Some stuff from China or the US, sure (actually the US stuff might have just been neckbeards and their dirty tricks), but nothing SAL.
I look at it this way; your chances of losing a SAL package are about 1% (the percentage is made up. I'm guessing it's smaller). You save roughly $5 or more on shipping going SAL, but there's the inherent danger of losing your package.
I'm guessing most everyone here is going to make at least 100 orders over the span of their collectorhood (I do roughly 12 a year before impulse purchases, go figure), meaning if you went SAL for all of them, you'd be saving about $500, probably more.
So, of those 100 orders, one goes missing. It's worth, say, $30-50.
So you've got two choices, pay a reasonable amount to insure every package you order, which over time will amount to several hundred dollars, or take a gamble and risk losing a single package.
I mean, yeah, if you're placing a big order or getting something really expensive or whatever you should go for EMS (but most of the time it won't even fit within the restrictions of SAL anyway), but really, unless you're stricken with exceptionally bad luck the amount of money you could potentially lose from SAL shipments is actually less than what you'd spend on EMS shipments to insure it.
Does that make sense? I'm not particularly good at getting a point across clearly, but I'm sure you get the gist of it.