M is for...Misery

Actually "M" is for M-bag...but I wanted to start on a low note.
The M-bag (or Mail Bag) has been a godsend to me over the last 4 years. It's the only way to get a large number of comics from the US to Europe for a decent price. On average shipping 70 comics will cost about $15.00....how's that for a deal ?
Only snag is that it takes 6-8 weeks...

I had no trouble living with these long transit times, Surface mail often takes 6 weeks as well, but is almost 3X the price...to cut a long story short ; M-bags rule !
Or so they did.

You see, I've been waiting for a particular M-bag for a while now, in fact I've been waiting for it for over 11 weeks...and still no sign. A fella I deal with on a regular basis (and he's not to blame in any way) had quite a large number of Thors I wanted and I asked him to M-bag them to me. He also ordered quite a large number of Silver Age bags & boards and Mylar sleeves + fullboards. Supplies which I can't get in my little corner of the world and which cost an arm and a leg to ship. So the logical conclusion was to "smuggle" the supplies together with the comics in a trusty old M-bag.

I've had about 15-20 M-bags sent to me over the years and most of them have arrived after 7-8 weeks. Some took 9 weeks and I remember one that took almost 10 weeks. But never 11 weeks+. So I'm slowly becoming aware that the law of averages has caught up with me and that this will be the first one to be "lost in the mail". I figure I'm out about $200 but it irks me more that I have to chase down those 70 Thor comics and don't have any supplies at all anymore...how I'll eventually get my hands on them is a mystery at this point.

Dontcha just love Human Nature ? I just wrote all this down and when I reached the end, a little spark of hope ignited and a little voice told me...."Maybe it will arrive tomorrow"....I really hate those little voices and I hate false hope...My M-bag has been dumped somewhere in a ditch in New Zealand, is fish-food of the coast of Senegal or maybe just maybe some kids in Lithuania are getting their kicks out of reading my Thors and making funny hats out of my Mylar sleeves...But hey I could live with that...