Chris- I'm not blaming you, & to be honest, most of my post was made in sarcasm (with the exception of the welcome), so I apologize if that came across wrong.
I agree- we are all humans, & are prone to mistakes. Lord knows, I've made quite a few mistakes & taken big risks in relation to these type of knives/transactions. In my case- I've just been extremely lucky. Although I've never purchased a balisong or automatic knife & had it shipped internationally- I have purchased dozens here domestically. Back in the day when I had bali fever & was buying anything & everything, if one of these packages would've come up lost or stolen, I would've been SOL, as far as PayPal was concerned. The fact that I live in California, only compounds matters! Spyderco & Benchmade won't even ship their balisong products back to me (if I were to send them in for warranty work). Spyderco, makes it perfectly clear: if you were to send in one of their balisong/auto's- they'll keep it.
In the future, if I were you- I would scour the Automatics for sale forum here. There are quite a few Protech auto's listed & occasionally I've see a The Don listed for sale. You wouldn't have to worry about exorbitant shipping fees either, if purchased domestically.
You never know- your knife still may show up (although in your case it seems to be a long shot). I shipped a knife to Moscow once, & it took nearly 7 weeks before it finally cleared customs.
Hit me up Chris, if you ever make it down to San Diego (Carlsbad). I have a few Protech's that I'd be happy to show you.
Best of luck!
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