I'm still fairly early in the process, I 
suppose.  I just mailed out the mail theft report 
about 2 weeks ago.  Funny thing is, the nearest 
Postal Inspectors office is a 4-hour drive away, 
so I don't know what the heck they can really 
accomplish or especially how long it will take.

The package was last tracked to the central 
postal processing center in the city of my 
address.  My city.  I am living with a half-hour 
drive of the package (probably much less) and I 
can't do a darn thing about it.

The consumer affairs office and the other postal 
employees I have spoken directly with (now 
weekly) are really just throwing up their hands 
and aren't willing to search a second time or 
double-check any areas that they might have 
missed.  They keep deferring to the Postal 
Inspectors, 4+ hours away.

EMS packages are insured up to only $500, and 
what I paid for the most important missing one is 
$580.  So I really have no choice but to wait it 
out or lose money (as well as my sanity).

My only real advice to others at this point is to 
never place a Japan cel order near or over $500.  
If you are purchasing more than that in cels, 
divide the lot into 2 or more shipments as 
necessary.  Not only will your cels be fully 
insured, but your stress about losing them all in 
one blow would be considerably reduced.

If you happen to order a very expensive cel over 
$500 alone, I may suggest asking the seller to 
get special insurance for that.  It may cost 
more, but since you're already paying that much a 
little extra cost to pay for insurance shouldn't 
be a big deal.

Otherwise, just take your chances with EMS.  I've 
had about a 95% successful delivery rate with 
EMS, so it's really a fairly reliable service.  
It's just that the 5% failure is accounting for 
about 30% of all my cel purchases to date... and 
it appears to be gone for good.