Shipping fees/methods/speed

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

Shipping and speed does matter to me.  While I don't expect them to ship out budget coins lightning-fast (although they often do), if it's a month or more total transit and/or the shipping is  egregious, I won't order much from them.  Most of my exceptions fall into the former category.

There's also a couple whom I wish would charge a little more for shipping.  The shipping is so low that they can't possibly be breaking even on that.

There's a Dutch dealer with delightful Byzantines, but it took a long time on both orders.  I really liked the coins, especially the first time, so I guess it was worth it, but it did greatly cut down on my orders.

Circumstances beyond a dealer's control can also play a factor.  I have only ordered once from Austria.  I don't like waiting for the ridiculous export permit.  That's also scared me off from even attempting an order from Spain.

Savoca's the only dealer whom I frequent who 'forces' me to use a non-postal option, although their FedEx rate is much lower than the others, and it's very fast.  Does it decrease the frequency of my orders from them?  Yes, a bit.  I usually only order from them if there's something I really want or a few liked coins have built up.

A 2015 incident with FedEx really traumatized me, but I've come to prefer FedEx over DHL Express for coins, although both are good.

My examples are from fixed-price dealers/houses.

 

[Deinomenid]

7 hours ago, Nerosmyfavorite68 said:

That's also scared me off from even attempting an order from Spain.

I'd check with the seller as there are 2 approaches there to the rules. A few stick  to some very specific interpretation of the process but others absolutely do  not. I've had any order from there delivered very quickly (to the US).

[DLTcoins]

$15 sounds like a bargain. From the US to Europe, for example, postage begins at $20 (1st class package, insurance not available). Insured options begin at $49 (priority flat rate box, $200 insurance included).

[DonnaML]

For everyone's information, I'm starting to feel a little more like myself, even though I still tested positive for Covid today. Yesterday I finished taking the Paxlovid, and I'm definitely better than I was when I started it: the fever went away within the first 24 hours after I began with it, and hasn't returned.  I seriously doubt that that would have happened without the Paxlovid, so I definitely give that drug a "five-star, would take it again" review so far.  Despite the side-effects, which haven't been a big deal. We'll see if I get the famous "Paxlovid rebound"! Fingers crossed. 

I finally left my apartment for the first time today to do some shopping, but am still quite tired. I just thought I'd drop in for a minute to mention that I received an invoice from Leu today for the two coins (one Roman Egyptian and one Roman Imperial) I bought in their most recent auction over the weekend. The combined hammer price of the two lots was CHF 370.00 before applying the buyer's commission. The stated charge for postage and handling? CHF 85.00 -- presumably for Federal Express, because I don't think they could possibly charge that much for regular international postage to the USA! I've written to ask how much they would charge me for regular shipping. Because I just can't see myself paying 85 CHF for shipping a pair of relatively inexpensive coins, even to get them a few days after shipment rather than a few weeks. Plus, from what was stated earlier in this thread, I find it hard to believe that Fedex actually charges Leu 80+ CHF to ship from Switzerland to the USA. Although I'd hate to think they're actually trying to make a profit on the shipping. 

Edited February 28 by DonnaML

[Prieure de Sion]

6 hours ago, DonnaML said:

I find it hard to believe that Fedex actually charges Leu 80+ CHF to ship from Switzerland to the USA.

As you can see on the previous page, I pay 55 euros from Germany to the USA with FedEx!

And this price is only so “cheap” because I order shipping through a large service provider - and not directly from FedEx. Then I would pay even more.

The problem with FedEx is. With DHL or UPS I have basic insurance of up to 500 euros. At FedEx (and TNT) the basic insurance is 0 euros.

This means that if I were to send you coins to the USA with FedEx, I would have to pay 55 euros (see list on previous page) and would be forced to take out extra insurance because of the FedEx terms. I think I would get about 65 euros from Germany to the USA with FedEx.

But now Switzerland is a very expensive country. As a Swiss, @Salomons Cat will confirm this to you. If a dinner costs 20 euros in Germany, it costs 40 CHF in Switzerland. Actually, everything in Switzerland is twice as expensive as in Germany. Almost. The wages are also significantly higher - but that is a different topic.

In summary - if (!) Leu actually sends the shipment to you with FedEx, then yes, I think the 80 CHF is quite realistic. Because for me from Germany, a FedEx shipment costs 55 euros and there is no insurance included - so in the end it costs me 65 euros. About 15 euros more for the Swiss? Yes, I think that's realistic.

[Prieure de Sion]

6 hours ago, DonnaML said:

For everyone's information, I'm starting to feel a little more like myself

PS: That's good news and I'm glad to hear it! 

[ambr0zie]

I am glad to see you are feeling better, @DonnaML. When I had Covid I was worried as even if I knew it's a mild case, it really felt serious. 

As a side note, I received my parcel, sent via Post. Ironically when I opened this thread my only complaint was the high unexpected fee for Post. I didn't know at that time that I will have to make 10 phone calls to incompetent people and also go to a warehouse to clarify. It was an error from the Post, registering my envelope to a different town (this wasn't the sender's fault), but this doesn't exclude the initial problem - why sending via post if for the same fee, recently, from the same house, DHL Express was used. 

To avoid any kind of problems in the future, I chose the safest solution - I will never buy from them anymore and I am very sure this was a nice attempt to make a small profit. Thank you, but not with me. They are "covered" - they mention nothing about the shipping method. And the insurance written on the envelope was 40 euros. Total was 186. No, thanks, I have other houses to choose from. 

I trust @Prieure de Sion so yep, this might be the actual fee for that invoice, so Leu is probably asking that price in an honest way but what I will personally do in the future:

1. I expect all the T&C to be clearly stated. This means - how much is the shipping charge, what is the service used. If I feel it is OK. I will buy.

I am now expecting a parcel sent with FedEX Priority (good service, faster than FedEX Economy).  I paid 25 euros. Sent from Belgium, the house sent it in a timely manner - I am happy with this. 

2. If the T&Cs are unclear, I will send an email and I expect clear details. Rather than - "shipping costs are 25 euros" I want to know what does that mean. FedEx, Post, homing pigeons? If no reply is received, skip. Once I assumed that a 29 EUR DHL is DHL Express. It was not. 

3. Particularily for Donna's case - 85 CHF is a lot for shipping, even if this is honest and accurate. Houses should be aware that there might be customers who want to buy 1-2 coins, with a total of 1-2-300 EUR. Shipping cost would not be justified then and many customers would email asking for cheaper methods OR asking to hold the coins for a future combined order. In my view, there should be the house's responsibility to make sure they have a cheaper alternate method of sending. And offer it by default - I mean, customer can choose FedEx or Post. If they can't, just state this clearly - we can only offer FedEX for 85 CHF, take it or leave it. 

Edited February 28 by ambr0zie

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I happened to order a denarius (star of the order) and a snack sestertius.  I would normally go with the post with most dealers, but I wanted to lessen the prospect of a squished denarius, so I went with DHL.

Savoca must have a sweetheart deal with FedEx - the cost is much less than normal.  I had to beg another German dealer, back in 2022, to send a gold coin via the post.  FedEx would have been about 80 Euros.

[ominus1]

..i  guess my Medici coins are on a slow boat from Italy...i ain't heard anything since the 18th when they departed the international exchange center....whatever that is...9_9..but it was fairly cheap 🙂

[seth77]

19 minutes ago, ominus1 said:

..i  guess my Medici coins are on a slow boat from Italy...i ain't heard anything since the 18th when they departed the international exchange center....whatever that is...9_9..but it was fairly cheap 🙂

The 18th... century? 🤔

[ominus1]

29 minutes ago, seth77 said:

The 18th... century?

..haha! i hope not   ^^

[DonnaML]

Thanks for the good wishes.  FYI, @Prieure de Sion, Leu also charges 1% of the total cost of the purchased coins (including the buyer's premium) as an additional charge for "insurance." I imagine that like most of the major auction houses, Leu has its own insurance policy, and imposes the 1% charge as a way of recovering some of its premium costs. 

Leu has informed me that the CHF 85.00 postage & handling charge on its invoice was indeed for Federal Express shipping, based on my decision last September to have the lost package containing the @Julius Germanicus sestertii I had purchased -- which was eventually returned to Leu after a long delay -- re-shipped to me via Federal Express. They assumed from that decision that I wanted all future shipments to be made by Federal Express. The shipping charge by regular international post would be CHF 22.00.

So I now have to choose between paying more than 20% of the hammer price of my two newly-purchased lots for Federal Express shipping (on top of the 20% buyer's premium!), or paying CHF 63.00 less but waiting a much longer time for delivery. The extra CHF 63.00 doesn't seem like a huge amount of money on its own, but I do feel an instinctive reluctance to pay that high a percentage of the hammer price of these lots simply to get them delivered more quickly.  I have not yet made my decision!

[ambr0zie]

It's up to you. For 63 CHF you can buy a nice enough coin. Sure, not a Julius Caesar UNC aureus, but I personally have a lot of coins I paid similar prices for and I am happy with them. 

[DonnaML]

3 hours ago, ambr0zie said:

It's up to you. For 63 CHF you can buy a nice enough coin. Sure, not a Julius Caesar UNC aureus, but I personally have a lot of coins I paid similar prices for and I am happy with them. 

I ended up paying only the CHF 22.00 for regular postage -- thereby saving CHF 63.00, equaling approximately $73.48 in US dollars. I just couldn't justify to myself paying a Federal Express fee amounting to almost a quarter of the coins' value. I could buy a whole week's worth of groceries for that amount! Or almost. I can wait for the coins. The chances that they'll get lost again, temporarily or otherwise, are not that high.

Edited February 28 by DonnaML

[ambr0zie]

I think I would have done the same for this price. For me - EU to EU the situation is a little different. I noticed bad delays on postal shippings in the last months. The cherry on the cake was my last event described earlier. 

So when I was in the next auction, different house, even if my invoice was small (2 coins - 140 euros hammer prices) I chose FedEx for 25 euros rather than Post for 15. 

The suprise is (and hope they will not do a stupid error right now) that FedEx Priority was used. The house shipped the parcel on Tuesday and it's already in my local center, should arrive tomorrow morning.  

Postal shipments take 2-3 weeks ...and more than once I had to clarify myself the situation, the "best" one being the previous shipment, when our post intended to send the envelope to a different town (without being the sender's fault). So they intended to return it to the sender. 

 

[expat]

I won a coin at a German auction on 25th Feb, the shipping label was created for FedEx on the morning of 26th Feb and was collected same day, it arrived at a FedEx hub this afternoon here in Spain and will be delivered tomorrow. 15 Euros for shipping. For service like that I have no complaints.

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

The DHL was a bit of no confidence tax for me.  I didn't have confidence in the floppy mailer.

Is there a significant premium for Philip sestertii with (more or less) round flans and a full circles strike?  I normally would have bought it, but it's around $200 for F+.  It's been sitting around for quite a while.

[ambr0zie]

A 3rd century sestertius with full, round flan and correct strike is a very good sign. But if it's sitting unsold for a while, this simply means the deal is not that great. 

[Nerosmyfavorite68]

I recently moved those bookmarks, obliterating the original saved date (and I don't know if I can modify the viewed folders in Firefox's bookmarks window), but the bookmark for that seems to go to a dead URL.  I'm pretty sure it was the same coin, the same reverse is noted, but my bookmark said it was even higher then.

[Prieure de Sion]

Thats a "nice" surprise today ... inside EU, from Estonia to Germany 😉 

 

20% Premium fees - absolute ok. Thats normal. I am fine with that.

- But for what 5,00 Euro "handling fees"? That i win that coin? Its your job! If someone buy a coin from me - i want my amount and my shipping costs. But i cant take money that i write a invoice or put the coin into the parcel.

- DHL Express shipping for 70,00 Euro? 😄 What kind of shipping is this? Personal shipping? But... hey, 70 exclusive shipping without insurance. Insurance cost extra! I take a look at DHL Express, from Germany to Estonia cost me 30,75 Euro. No words more.

- Insurance for 13,20 Euro extra (not included with the 70 Euro VIP 5* DHL shipping)

Lets calculate - for Handling, DHL shipping and insurance near 90 Euro inside EU.
That`s... interesting 😉 

 

 

 

[ambr0zie]

Something is very wrong indeed. I saw another house I used to buy from raising FedEx charge to 40 euros. EU to EU. 

[ela126]

In good shipping news, Sol Numismatik offers Slovenia Post now, to the USA, for 9 euro!

[Prieure de Sion]

On 2/22/2024 at 1:11 PM, ambr0zie said:

I was a little shocked as paying 15 euros for an uninsured postal package or 25 euros for a Fedex uninsured package doesn't seem to ...reassuring. And doubling the fees for insurance seems silly, doesn't it?

Today i am little shocked too... 😉 

Make a biddr checkout from a yesterday auction.

 

 

From EU Belgium to EU Germany - 15 Euro for a registered letter? I know registered letter will cost around 8 Euro. Thats a nice winning. 

But 30 Euro for a registered letter with insurance. I know the insurance prices of the market - let me calculate, 8 Euro for the letter and 22 Euro for the insurance of a 500 Euro coin? Normally 99% of the Insurance company`s will take 1% fee of the invoice amount. For a 500 Euro coin = 5 Euro insurance fees. Nice winning.

50 Euro FedEx include insurance. Same. 

Some companies seem to have found a second way to make money. Don't get me wrong - I'm a salesman myself. But if you have earned money from the goods and again from the sales fees. Ok - I understand. But if you now want to earn money from the goods, the sales fees and the shipping. I don't think that's good.

[ambr0zie]

That was the exact situation I raised the thread for. 

[Roman Collector]

I purchased a coin from a Spanish auction (Tauler & Fau) earlier this month. Less than 100 Euro hammer. SIXTY-FIVE (65) Euro for shipping to the US!!!!! And it won't be shipped until an export permit is obtained -- in EARLY JUNE!!! 

The only reason I bid at this auction firm is that the coin is a scarce variety and I "needed" it for my specialty collection. But 65 Euro!!!??? INSANE!