Shipping Costs

[Rasilon]

Hello,

Over the last several years I've acquired most of my ancient coins from auction houses. Initially I looked at the shipping costs for each house before making a purchase but eventually stopped as they all seemed to be in the same general range. A recent auction purchase that came with an unexpectedly high shipping costs made me reassess that assumption. As a result of that experience I decided to plot the shipping costs for all of the auctions I had won in the last year. I should mention that I am located in the US (MA) and that most of these shipping costs were valued in various currencies so I converted them to USD using the average exchange rate for that one-year period.

I found that most of the shipments were in the same general range, with the average being $24. This is about what my gut check had been telling me. The one outlier (my most recent purchase) came from Roma Numismatics. At $43 it was almost twice as expensive as the average. Their website says alternatives shipping methods can be requested but when I contacted them about alternative options I received the following reply:

  "I am afraid that our shipping costs are fixed and cannot be altered as they cover not only the cost of freight, but also packaging, labour costs and insurance. "

The one part of their response that jumped out at me as a possible explanation for the abnormally high shipping costs was that they included labor. Is this normal for the industry? I would have thought that would be baked into their overhead rate somehow.

At any rate, this makes it far less unattractive when making small purchases.

If anyone else has data on typical shipping costs I'd like to see it.

Thanks,

Rasilon

 

[John Conduitt]

You might need to factor in the amount insured. Roma charge me £15 in the UK for small orders but it has been as high as £32. It might also be worth looking at total fees, since some charge more on one thing than another. Even then, comparisons are problematic, since in a perfect model the buyers will have accounted for all of that in their bids.

Edited April 14, 2023 by John Conduitt

[Deinomenid]

Is this "just" shipping,  ie without the extra fees  that UPS or Fedex add?

The flexibility of some auction houses to  use more regular mail services  (while keeping the same tracking and  insurance ability) can seriously reduce the net overall cost of delivery.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

That's about what DHL Express costs from most vcoins dealers.  I've never had it be cheaper than around $38.

That's why I've reduced my buys from UK dealers. Royal mail (to the U.S.) is just so darn slow now and for c. $38, I really have to love the coin/s to choose DHL Express.

I've become pretty pleased with Savoca's FedEx. 

[hotwheelsearl]

Roma recently upped their shipping dramatically. Used to be 21.50, now it’s  30.00 (GBP). Absolutely no excuse other than simple profit-whoring.

[John Conduitt]

14 hours ago, hotwheelsearl said:

Roma recently upped their shipping dramatically. Used to be 21.50, now it’s  30.00 (GBP). Absolutely no excuse other than simple profit-whoring.

It must be related to DHL charges to the US. Roma still charge £15 to the UK, as they have done for a while. That's still double the next-day recorded-delivery fully-insured service from the Royal Mail, but it hasn't gone up.

[Rasilon]

@John Conduitt

Quote

You might need to factor in the amount insured.

I don't think insurance costs explain the high shipping costs. I believe that all of my purchases were on the smaller side. Definitely <$500. In fact the latest purchase from Roma was my smallest purchase at 40 GBP.

@Deinomenid

Quote

Is this "just" shipping,  ie without the extra fees  that UPS or Fedex add?

The numbers I listed should cover shipping, insurance and any associated shipper's fees.  It does not include payment fees for using PayPal or credit cards.

@Nerosmyfavorite68

Quote

That's why I've reduced my buys from UK dealers. Royal mail (to the U.S.) is just so darn slow now and for c. $38, I really have to love the coin/s to choose DHL Express.

I guess I will have to start doing the same. I stopped buying from German dealers a while ago because their shipping costs where so high, at least when I was going through MA Shops.

Thanks,

Rasilon