Got my books today (yipee!) all the way down under in Australia. Order# 9683, ordered on the 11th of July. The delivery itself was quite fast (Priority Mail International) but it took six days (4 working days) to process and ship my order. It seems I must have ordered just as things were getting busy at APE. I had similar tracking problems to everyone else, my tracking status stayed on "electronic notification" for the better part of 5 days.

My biggest concern was the state of the books when I got them. All of the books were damaged in some way. I'm not entirely sure the polysterene bead/bubble things used to pack the books were sufficient to protect them from transit damage. One corner of the delivery box is dented with corresponding damage on the corner of the books. The damage looks like someone gripped the corner between thumb and forefinger and bent the book corner. Also one of the books has a 5cm long gouge out of the back cover (stripping off all of the glossy colouring).

I've had similar problems with other orders placed through USPS. All of the packages in the last six months that I received via USPS have been damaged in some fashion with corresponding damage to the goods inside. The damage never looks fresh so it can't be the fault of the local delivery agent (Australia Post).

Strange as I never had damage or tracking problems when I ordered the Oots boardgame.

By the way all of the Oots goods I have bought so far have been excellent quality (except for the cafe press t-shirts which had less than stellar quality colouration and fabric strength as compared to shirts from say Thinkgeek.com)

Thanks.

T.