Waiting on coins from four different dealers

[DANTE]

3-4 seconds before closing is my sweet spot...😊

FWIW: I forgot to mention that, in the same auction, there were a few coins I bid on where I was the underbidder by a single increment, which again argues against shill-bidding. But I agree timed auctions can be a very frustrating experience and I prefer the 'going once, twice' type myself. If I would seriously suspect shill bidding then I would either drastically lower my max bid or, better yet, not attend at all.

[Severus Alexander]

My experience has been similar to @DANTE's and I don't think there's any shilling going on, at least for the lower-priced items I tend to bid on.  (I believe the earlier discussion on CoinTalk was primarily addressed to higher ticket items.)  Still, I do often bid at the last second.  Their system is pretty responsive, it seems so even bidding with 1 or 2 seconds left seems to work fine.  Well, except for one major hiccup: it will sometimes show that you won the lot (with your bid in green numbers) when you haven't really... someone else has sniped you with milliseconds remaining.  You have to refresh the page after the lot closes to be sure.  This is quite annoying if you're trying to obtain one from a run of similar coins.  During this past auction I thought I'd won a Ketos sea monster from Halikarnassos for a whole 12 hours before I realized that no, it had gone to someone else! 😭

[singig]

17 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

................ it will sometimes show that you won the lot (with your bid in green numbers) when you haven't really... someone else has sniped you with milliseconds remaining.  You have to refresh the page after the lot closes to be sure.  This is quite annoying if you're trying to obtain one from a run of similar coins.  During this past auction I thought I'd won a Ketos sea monster from Halikarnassos for a whole 12 hours before I realized that no, it had gone to someone else! 😭

I had the same probleme during the last Leu auction  , I was so happy to win(bid numbers in green) a Trajan denarius  and so dipointend afters two minutes when I refreshed the page 😞 .

I received the shipping notification this morning.

 

[seth77]

18 hours ago, Severus Alexander said:

My experience has been similar to @DANTE's and I don't think there's any shilling going on, at least for the lower-priced items I tend to bid on.  (I believe the earlier discussion on CoinTalk was primarily addressed to higher ticket items.)  Still, I do often bid at the last second.  Their system is pretty responsive, it seems so even bidding with 1 or 2 seconds left seems to work fine.  Well, except for one major hiccup: it will sometimes show that you won the lot (with your bid in green numbers) when you haven't really... someone else has sniped you with milliseconds remaining.  You have to refresh the page after the lot closes to be sure.  This is quite annoying if you're trying to obtain one from a run of similar coins.  During this past auction I thought I'd won a Ketos sea monster from Halikarnassos for a whole 12 hours before I realized that no, it had gone to someone else! 😭

Lately this happens on ebay too, you are in the green but you'd better refresh the page 3-5s after to be sure.

[Prieure de Sion]

Shopping in Switzerland ... 🤪

Summary netto of coins = 2.258,00 CHF

Auctions House
Buyers Fee = 417,80 CHF
Shipping and Shipping Service (ha ha ha) = 65,00 CHF
Bank Transfer = 12,00 CHF
Extra Insurance (its not include in the 65 CHF shipping from Swiss to Germany? Ok.) = 26,75 CHF
= 521,55 CHF

German Tax
= 440,00 Euro

FedEx (what a joke) want 2,5% Service Fee, why I pay Shipping Cost and Insurance, when I must pay the next fee???
= 107,15 Euro (!!!)

 

Ok lets see.

Coins = 2.320 Euro (2.258 CHF)

Fees all in = 1.083 Euro

summary impact 47%

 

🥵🥵🥵🥵

[El Cazador]

3 hours ago, Prieure de Sion said:

Shopping in Switzerland ... 🤪

Summary netto of coins = 2.258,00 CHF

Auctions House
Buyers Fee = 417,80 CHF
Shipping and Shipping Service (ha ha ha) = 65,00 CHF
Bank Transfer = 12,00 CHF
Extra Insurance (its not include in the 65 CHF shipping from Swiss to Germany? Ok.) = 26,75 CHF
= 521,55 CHF

German Tax
= 440,00 Euro

FedEx (what a joke) want 2,5% Service Fee, why I pay Shipping Cost and Insurance, when I must pay the next fee???
= 107,15 Euro (!!!)

 

Ok lets see.

Coins = 2.320 Euro (2.258 CHF)

Fees all in = 1.083 Euro

summary impact 47%

 

🥵🥵🥵🥵

Fine, just start selling your coins to me, so we can elleviate the suffering!😜

[Prieure de Sion]

I have a problem here with a UPS shipment to Arizona. Maybe someone from the US who orders goods in the EU can help me here. Maybe @DonnaML ? You order a lot of things in the EU, don't you? Do you know your way around here better?

We ship our coins either with DHL Express or with UPS from Germany. 

A customer (wasn't it even you @DonnaML ?) mailed us "back then" to please include the following description in the shipping documents: "antique more than 100 years old".

If we didn't do this, she might have to pay fees / customs. Therefore, we always ship with this designation of the items in the shipping documents. And we have never had any problems with it.

We have booked shipping to the USA.
We declared the coins that way.
The recipient received the coins without any problems and without any further fees.
Until yesterday.

 

A customer wrote to us excitedly - understandably - he had to pay 120 USD (for a coin with about 1500 USD value of goods) in fees when receiving the UPS package. What was already very strange was that the delivery person claimed that WE would get the 120 USD. Of course, this is not true at all. We have nothing to do with the 120 USD - because as the sender we pay the shipping fees and then we never have anything to do with the shipping company again.

I wrote to UPS support and got a reply - but I think it's an AI or machine reply. It says:

"Please note that you have sent a shipment of goods to a third country. All shipments outside the EU pass through customs. Import duties have become due for your consignment, which the recipient must pay either in advance or at the latest on delivery. These duties do not go to the sender, but to the respective recipient country".

But this is such a typical support answer that is supposed to cover all questions. It does not specifically address my question to this recipient. Did he really have to pay customs duties? And why? This is our very first customer in the USA who had to pay fees. And we have already sent about 40 parcels to the USA without such problems.

 

Ok. Long speech. Short story. Since many people here are from the USA. Can anyone here perhaps help from their experience? 

Actually, it is no longer our business. We as sellers have to make sure that we declare the goods truthfully. We can't make bananas out of coins in the papers. But of course we try to take the wishes of the customers into account in the shipping documents. We have to ensure good shipping. But when the parcel arrives in the recipient country - the recipient must always take care of customs - that is no longer in our hands. But of course I am interested in the question. Because we want our customers to enjoy receiving our parcels.

 

So why is it that the recipient had to pay 120 USD? 

Is our declaration "antique more than 100 years old" also good? Should we write another addition in the papers?

 

Thanks!

 

Edited August 3, 2022 by YOTHR

[Roman Collector]

That's very strange. I've purchased scores of coins from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and other EU countries and not once has this happened. 

Edited August 3, 2022 by Roman Collector

[Prieure de Sion]

18 minutes ago, Roman Collector said:

That's very strange.

It is "strange" mainly because the UPS parcel man had claimed that WE had ordered the 120 USD and WE would get the 120 USD from UPS. This is complete nonsense. 

Because we didn't even order the parcel label directly from UPS - but book the parcel label through a service provider (Jumingo). We paid the shipping costs via Jumingo - so we have nothing to do with UPS directly. Especially as - as a seller - you pay for the parcel label - and then that's it. You don't get any money from UPS afterwards.

But the support says - it was customs fees. But as I said - that was an automated 0815 answer.

I think I'll ask the customer again. He must have received a receipt. Or he must / should contact UPS America support - what exactly was charged. The whole thing is very mysterious.

[DonnaML]

22 hours ago, YOTHR said:

I have a problem here with a UPS shipment to Arizona. Maybe someone from the US who orders goods in the EU can help me here. Maybe @DonnaML ? You order a lot of things in the EU, don't you? Do you know your way around here better?

We ship our coins either with DHL Express or with UPS from Germany. 

A customer (wasn't it even you @DonnaML ?) mailed us "back then" to please include the following description in the shipping documents: "antique more than 100 years old".

If we didn't do this, she might have to pay fees / customs. Therefore, we always ship with this designation of the items in the shipping documents. And we have never had any problems with it.

 

 

Not I! I know nothing! I didn't do it, Your Honor!

[Prieure de Sion]

2 hours ago, DonnaML said:

Not I! I know nothing! I didn't do it, Your Honor!

You're right, I checked, it was a different lady. I only know a few ladies from your city - so I had mixed it up 😉 

 

22 hours ago, Roman Collector said:

That's very strange. I've purchased scores of coins from Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, and other EU countries and not once has this happened. 

We did not find out what exactly the UPS driver collected. In any case, it is not a tax. The UPS receipt says "brokerage fee".

The customer cancelled the cheque. If the UPS officials think they will get more money, they will surely contact him. But he will resist - there is nothing he has to pay extra. 

The matter is settled for the time being - even if it remains a mystery.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I'm thinking of purchasing a coin from a Belgian dealer, but DHL Express would be almost 90 Euros, a full 30% of the purchase price!  I put a coin in the cart from NeroNumi (Norway) to see if DHL had massively increased their prices, and it was still 30-something there.

I guess I'll have to settle for 'priority registered' mail.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Is DHL more expensive in Belgium?  What is it like to order there?  The Netherlands took forever, but it's a small sample size.

[John Conduitt]

On 7/29/2022 at 4:07 AM, Severus Alexander said:

You have to refresh the page after the lot closes to be sure.  This is quite annoying if you're trying to obtain one from a run of similar coins.  During this past auction I thought I'd won a Ketos sea monster from Halikarnassos for a whole 12 hours before I realized that no, it had gone to someone else! 😭

I 'won' a lot last year with Noble Numismatics in Australia. They have a 'going, going, gone' style auction, so all should be good.

After the bidding, the website had my bid in green, and it showed the winning value was the amount I bid. Even refreshing, even many hours later, it showed the same.

Then when I got the invoice, that lot wasn't on it. I queried this. I sent them a screenshot, proving I'd won it. They responded:

"Lot XXX was given to a floor bidder for [one increment above your bid]. Unfortunately, the console operator did not have time to enter this information into the system. We have checked the auctioneers and Mr. Noble's notes and they both have lot XXX won by a floor bidder."

So without a very astute pre-bid (and a crystal ball), it was technically impossible for me to win the lot. The website didn't know there was a higher bid from the floor, and so didn't even give me the option to bid the next increment. Instead, it froze the bid button, saying I was winning.

Incidentally, Noble have the distinction of having sold me 4 out of 5 lots at exactly my pre-bid, not a penny less, except this one lot. I have never had to bid live, even though I'm there waiting for it at 3am. Amazing, huh? It seems I am incredibly good at pre-bidding after all. I don't normally do it, but with Australian auctions, there's a good chance I won't stay awake for all my lots to appear sometime around 3, 4 or 5am... maybe there are a lot of bidders like that in Australian auctions...

Edited August 13, 2022 by John Conduitt

[thejewk]

In postage woe news, just had an empty envelope delivered that at one point contained a nice unreduced nummus for Constantine as Caesar from Trier.  A valuable piece of history lost because an idiot posted it out in a simple paper envelope wrapped in some tissue paper.

[Kaleun96]

On 8/14/2022 at 12:02 AM, John Conduitt said:

I 'won' a lot last year with Noble Numismatics in Australia. They have a 'going, going, gone' style auction, so all should be good.

After the bidding, the website had my bid in green, and it showed the winning value was the amount I bid. Even refreshing, even many hours later, it showed the same.

Then when I got the invoice, that lot wasn't on it. I queried this. I sent them a screenshot, proving I'd won it. They responded:

"Lot XXX was given to a floor bidder for [one increment above your bid]. Unfortunately, the console operator did not have time to enter this information into the system. We have checked the auctioneers and Mr. Noble's notes and they both have lot XXX won by a floor bidder."

So without a very astute pre-bid (and a crystal ball), it was technically impossible for me to win the lot. The website didn't know there was a higher bid from the floor, and so didn't even give me the option to bid the next increment. Instead, it froze the bid button, saying I was winning.

Incidentally, Noble have the distinction of having sold me 4 out of 5 lots at exactly my pre-bid, not a penny less, except this one lot. I have never had to bid live, even though I'm there waiting for it at 3am. Amazing, huh? It seems I am incredibly good at pre-bidding after all. I don't normally do it, but with Australian auctions, there's a good chance I won't stay awake for all my lots to appear sometime around 3, 4 or 5am... maybe there are a lot of bidders like that in Australian auctions...

I've had similar problem in the past with Noble's live platform as well. I've had it no register my bids at all in the back platform (where it says which lots you bid on), to also "winning" a lot as it closed live only to find out after it didn't record me as the winner.

[thejewk]

1 hour ago, thejewk said:

In postage woe news, just had an empty envelope delivered that at one point contained a nice unreduced nummus for Constantine as Caesar from Trier.  A valuable piece of history lost because an idiot posted it out in a simple paper envelope wrapped in some tissue paper.

Listen to this for a comedy of errors.  So, I was wrong.  I thought that this envelope had to be for the single coin purchase I was waiting for, because who in their right mind would post a batch of 9 coins wrapped in a bit of tissue paper in a standard paper envelope?  The seller of the single coin correctly pointed out that the envelope pictured wasn't the one he sent, but then accidentally refunded me anyway.  So now I have to wait for that coin to arrive, figure out a way to get the payment sent back to him, and process a refund for the actual missing coins, using the same images as my first request which makes the whole thing look super dodgy.

Unfortunately, the batch of 9 coins contained a very rare London mint coin I am unlikely to find again.

Just had to sit through an ebay support chat of shame to try and resolve this lol... Oops.

[Prieure de Sion]

 

Today I received a package with two (!) coins from a renowned (!) auction house. It always shocks me how much plastic waste is used in some shipping. Thank God it is the exception - but again and again I have to dispose of a mountain of plastic because of 1, 2 or 3 small coins. That doesn't have to be the case nowadays - does it?

You can also send coins safely from loss and damage in small quantities.

And if the sender thought - so much plastic protects the customer's coins better - I don't think so - when I see how the coins themselves were packed.

 

 

Yes something like that annoys me - today - far too much plastic. That annoys me. I don't want to be part of a plastic problem as a customer. And then completely useless - because it's a good thing they weren't thin soft coins, like Solidus, for example, because they would have been bent - despite all the plastic.

😡

[Prieure de Sion]

 

 

Bought or not bought - that is the question?

 

How I love such auction house platforms and their joke in keeping the user in the dark. Now I ask myself until tomorrow, Monday, can I wait for the coin or not? Let's see what the auction house will answer me tomorrow - and above all - if I have lost - how they will explain it to me.

😎

 

[Roman Collector]

1 hour ago, Prieure de Sion said:

 

 

Bought or not bought - that is the question?

 

How I love such auction house platforms and their joke in keeping the user in the dark. Now I ask myself until tomorrow, Monday, can I wait for the coin or not? Let's see what the auction house will answer me tomorrow - and above all - if I have lost - how they will explain it to me.

😎

 

That's lovely! Here's mine.

[Prieure de Sion]

2 minutes ago, Roman Collector said:

That's lovely! Here's mine.

The different was - that yours! I am not sure its mine or not mine... I LOST the race because it was sold for 120.000 JPY and I am only bid 190.000 JPY ... thats a logic ... xD 

Thats my new Schrödingers Cat Sestertius ... 😄 

 

 

Edited December 11, 2022 by Prieure de Sion

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I kinda sorta learned how to prod FedEx into delivering on a day to my liking.  Within the primitive Delivery Manager I can schedule vacation holds. So far I've used it to avoid rainy days, etc.

I can also discover this way whether they deliver on Saturday or not. If they do, most of my problems are solved.  I delayed the Savoca delivery all week until I'm off.

FedEx allegedly does offer an extra cost service in which they can deliver on a specified day.  I wonder if Savoca will do that?

Savoca's cool but I sure wish they'd add a second option.  I'd rather wait the 4-5 weeks for ultra slow Deutsche Post, rather than the ultra-fast FedEx which dumps it at the door. The ultra-slow option at least delivers the parcel where I want it to be. 

And has something changed in shipping lately?  London Ancient Coins (postal option) never had a signature slip before.  It did last time, which delayed my package til the weekend.  I don't mind signature slips at all for expensive stuff, but it's annoying on sub $200 orders. 

I also wish that vcoins would make it easier to request signatures on expensive packages.

[Prieure de Sion]

´

41 minutes ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

I kinda sorta learned how to prod FedEx into delivering on a day to my liking.  Within the primitive Delivery Manager I can schedule vacation holds. So far I've used it to avoid rainy days, etc.

I can also discover this way whether they deliver on Saturday or not. If they do, most of my problems are solved.  I delayed the Savoca delivery all week until I'm off.

FedEx allegedly does offer an extra cost service in which they can deliver on a specified day.  I wonder if Savoca will do that?

Savoca's cool but I sure wish they'd add a second option.  I'd rather wait the 4-5 weeks for ultra slow Deutsche Post, rather than the ultra-fast FedEx which dumps it at the door. The ultra-slow option at least delivers the parcel where I want it to be. 

And has something changed in shipping lately?  London Ancient Coins (postal option) never had a signature slip before.  It did last time, which delayed my package til the weekend.  I don't mind signature slips at all for expensive stuff, but it's annoying on sub $200 orders. 

I also wish that vcoins would make it easier to request signatures on expensive packages.

You can already do it. I offer my customers from Germany to the USA "International letter with tracking" for 5 euros. 

However, at the buyer's risk! Because the insurance only covers up to 50 euros. 

But many of my US customers use this option for inexpensive coins around 50-100 euros. With the tracking you can see where the shipment is at any time. It is delivered like a letter. But with the risk of total loss - if the consignment is lost. 

But every customer has to assess this for himself - I leave the customer the free choice.

PS: The average time for sending a letter before Christmas (currently it takes longer because of Christmas) is usually 2 weeks, maximum 3 weeks.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

The couple of times that I've done Deutsche Post for coins has taken in the neighborhood of 4 weeks.  Now, I don't know how fast the dealer got to the post office.  It could have been a week and 3 weeks transit.

Only Biga from the Netherlands has been slightly slower, but small sample size and I have no idea if Netherlands' post is just slow or what happened.

 

[Roman Collector]

56 minutes ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

The couple of times that I've done Deutsche Post for coins has taken in the neighborhood of 4 weeks.  Now, I don't know how fast the dealer got to the post office.  It could have been a week and 3 weeks transit.

Only Biga from the Netherlands has been slightly slower, but small sample size and I have no idea if Netherlands' post is just slow or what happened.

 

I have been tracking my lots from Biga and they were posted in a timely fashion, but they sat at the USPS facility in the Netherlands for weeks before arriving in Los Angeles last week.