Receiving a Coin Book Shipped From Spain

afantiques:

You're very wrong on this. The only way you can send safely out of the country by USPS is by express mail, registered mail, priority mail and all of these you can insure. If you cannot insure it, like I said before, in Central and South America and parts of Europe your packages will get stolen. You can put pencils on the customs forms, and they will open it and take it.

The big problem with the US sellers and the European sellers now, is the shipping cost. Yes you can get private insurance and some of those will not cover certain countries. Some of them will not cover numismatic items, gold or silver (jewelry).

All mail in the US goes at a snail pace now because of the closing of many of the sorting facilities. It's not going to get any better. I know this from first hand because I send out about 50 packages a week. To the US, a package used to take 3-5 days now it takes anywhere from 10-30 days. Depending on the European country, it can average 11 days for just a simple letter.

That's why private companies are popping up all over these countries, which you still have to pay the postage of the country of origin. They take the items through customs and then deposit it into the US postal system. It's the same way if you use a private company to send to other countries. Most of them have private delivery for items or you have to pick them up at customs.

One other thing, if you use the USPS you have to hope that the country you're sending it to scans it. Because 99% of the time they don't bother to scan it.

 

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You're very wrong on this. The only way you can send safely out of the country by USPS is by express mail, registered mail, priority mail and all of these you can insure.

These methods are needlessly expensive. And no safer than first class mail as they look more attractive to casual thieves. There is no absolute safety, but commercial insurance companies will insure First Class International, they do not care what value is on the customs label, and Shipsurance will cover numismatic items. The cost is around 1% of the insured value. Better deals are available.

A few countries are excluded from cover but you can also exclude these countries from your shipping list. They are usually not places you are likely to get many buyers from anyway.

Given that in general the risk is very small, self insurance is also practical and will add so little to the shipping cost no one will notice, since your base shipping cost will be as low as is available.

Ebay shipping labels are a bad thing, as they prefill the customs description with the heading of the ebay item. This field should be edited to a brief and boring description, no precious metals, no jewels, not popular brand names. Just a generic wording. THe value should be about $20 for everything.

My advice is based on the experience of selling over 40,000 antique and collectable items, mostly internationally, average value about $50 to $100, never anything but standard untracked airmail, and with the tiny loss rate I mentioned.

Many US based sellers fear of international shipping seems to be based on both ignorance of the facilities available, hearsay from others that includes no mention of the millions of problem free transactions, and ignorance of the day to day life of the countries they might ship to.

All objections can be countered rationally but you cannot convince someone, whose belief amounts to a faith, with reason. Many sellers in many countries have a belief that beyond the borders all is howling chaos, indeeed in ancient China this was official state policy, beyond the bounds of the Celestial Kingdom, only demons roamed the world.


One other thing, if you use the USPS you have to hope that the country you're sending it to scans it. Because 99% of the time they don't bother to scan it.

Most countries do not bother with tracking of routine mail, rightly considering it an expensive and useless frill, not worth the cost. One of the consequences of relying on tracking is that if the item is delivered to the wrong place or person, you as the recipient are stuffed, as the item (according to the computer) is 'delivered'.

 

Lying on the customs forms, I do not advise this to anyone. This is a potential problem. Foreign government customs are not stupid. Anything strange on the customs label will get it opened and they will check it. Especially anything marked as 'gift'.

For the insurance part, if you do not put the right amount on the customs label (at least for high priced items that I sell) the insurance will be voided. Your rationality that countries consider scanning a useless frill is totally wrong. Most but not all do it. To what extent? That's left up to the country. That's the only way they track their packages the same way we do. So at least 1% of them will get scanned. And what gets scanned, you know will get delivered. At least with my experience to foreign countries they get the right address.

You're going to hear horror stories, packages going to and from the US and it's rightfully so. Our postal system's quality has gone down unbelievably. Even though we're still the best in the world, at least in my opinion.

You have a trend now on eBay, that US sellers will only send to the 48 states and will not send to Alaska or Hawaii. Also territories and protectorates. Why? I don't know. The tracking and service is the same. Now on the other hand the foreign countries, you're seeing a trend in Germany, France, Sweden and many others that will not send to the US at all. They only will send within Europe. It doesn't matter, even if you're willing to pay Express cost, they will not send out of Europe. Half of their fears are US customs, too many lost items and the part of the US not wanting to sell out of the country plus the cost.

Remember, if you're getting paid by paypal, after a certain dollar amount you need signature confirmation. That's why with anything I sell over $500 abroad I will only take cash or Western Union.

 

Lying on the customs forms, I do not advise this to anyone. This is a potential problem. Foreign government customs are not stupid. Anything strange on the customs label will get it opened and they will check it. Especially anything marked as 'gift'.

Gift is certainly pointless, I always tick merchandise. Otherwise there is no downside. No one but an idiot would ship something and describe it as $20 Gold coin. Value $2000. For me a similar item goes out as numismatic material, value $20.

The truth is that no one does any more inspection of postal packages than they can avoid. It is even an informal formality in Canada, where the Can$20 import threshold for charging local consumption taxes has been abandoned for years on postal packages as simply not cost effective. The big money for governments is in clearing container imports, by sea and air. One man can collect hundreds of thousands in revenue in a day, all they do at the postal clearance is run stuff past a sniffer dog and X-ray some of the packages for weapons. Many thousands if low vaklue packages a day are not worth inspecting for the possible revenue raised, and they certainly do not open many packets. They have far tastier packages to open, when they do, than a small packet of a few coins or notes. The dogs and the X-ray machines provide enough things that are worth inspecting to earn their paychecks.



For the insurance part, if you do not put the right amount on the customs label (at least for high priced items that I sell) the insurance will be voided.

This is simply not true. Third party transit insurers simply do not care what the customs value is, and in any case the package, if lost, loses the customs form with it. For the insurers, a low customs valued package is a benefit, it travels safer and costs them less money in claims.

Your rationality that countries consider scanning a useless frill is totally wrong. Most but not all do it. To what extent? That's left up to the country. That's the only way they track their packages the same way we do. So at least 1% of them will get scanned.

Most countries have some sort of tracking system for premium postal methods, but you have to pay the equivalent of $8 in the UK, for example, to get this. Just about everyone would not spend that amount since the post arrives safely without it. It's not the countries' postal services but the populations of the countries that consider scanning and tracking all post a useless frill. The postal operators love it because it makes money for them, the people don't because it costs far more than the risk and in any case, makes no real difference to the safe arrival of packages.


And what gets scanned, you know will get delivered. At least with my experience to foreign countries they get the right address.

The trouble with this argument is that you have no way of knowing if it made any difference. I can equally well and fairly say that the 40.000 ebay items I sent out with no tracking on anything also got delivered. I agree that getting the right address is pretty important.

You're going to hear horror stories, packages going to and from the US and it's rightfully so. Our postal system's quality has gone down unbelievably. Even though we're still the best in the world, at least in my opinion.

The problem with import to the US seems to be not a USPS problem but a DHS imposed restriction problem. At one stage a couple of years ago European post offices were simply not accepting any packages to USA.

Now on the other hand the foreign countries, you're seeing a trend in Germany, France, Sweden and many others that will not send to the US at all. They only will send within Europe. It doesn't matter, even if you're willing to pay Express cost, they will not send out of Europe.

Natural effect of the very slow clearance and long mail holdup currently effecting world to US mail. Since the delays do not seem to be caused by the postal services, paying more money to them for premium service does not really make any difference. Only courier services like FedEx can skirt the log-jam.

Remember, if you're getting paid by paypal, after a certain dollar amount you need signature confirmation. That's why with anything I sell over $500 abroad I will only take cash or Western Union.

Sensible, but it's probably cheaper and more customer friendly to simply insure the package with a transit insurer. Obviously these are not ebay sales for cash or WU Instant Transfer.

The sum now, for Paypal, is $750.

 

The customs in the post office (US and foreign) check the packages. Why do you think that some items can sit there for 4 weeks? I just don't think they put them in a corner and wait. They are checked. If you ever get anything that has tracking on it from Europe, you'll see that it goes through their postal system and their customs, then it goes to the NY customs and then back into the postal system.

Yes, the customs that check the containers of course bring in more revenue than the post office. But it is equally important that the country gets all the revenue they can. So they do treat the postal revenue with high regard as for them to collect their taxes. That's what they use to pay the workers. As I seen, they take their jobs very seriously and for the security of the country.

The sellers in Europe don't want to sell to the US because of the tracking and loss of packages. I know this firsthand. It's not even the cost, almost. The Express mail, FedEx or any private company they still do not want to send it to the US. This is a disturbing trend. It's not that it got to a point where nobody wants to send to the US, but it's getting there. The US sellers are having the same problem: cost and no way of knowing if the item arrived. Most of the world now, works with PayPal. And you know that you have to show tracking that they can upload from the internet and verify it from the internet. Especially on eBay.

Of course you don't put a $20 gold coin on the form. But you do put numismatic with the right value. If you're using a private company, especially for sending to Central and South America, you have no problem with them stealing it. They walk it through customs. The buyer pays a tax, package is delivered, everyone is happy.

 

I didn't realize you were from England. Correct me if I am wrong? You only have to show proof of sending not of delivery like in the US for PayPal. You would not suffer financial loss if an item isn't delivered, only a customer. Now I can see why you would put a $2000 coin for $20 only in customs.

 

I didn't realize you were from England. Correct me if I am wrong? You only have to show proof of sending not of delivery like in the US for PayPal.


No, the rules are the same. But in about 12 years of ebay selling I would lose maybe 3 or 4 items a year, and simply refund anyone who claimed not to have had their item. That's simple and cheap, and with a bit of diplomatic hand holding slow delivery could usually be smoothed over. Not that it happened all that often. It was far, far cheaper to treat all claims as genuine than to try and prove any one was not.

During most of that period, there was no formal money back guarantee process, but that's what customers of good sellers got anyway, but on their word alone. Why not, compared with turnover and profit the cost was trivial.

The customs in the post office (US and foreign) check the packages. Why do you think that some items can sit there for 4 weeks? I just don't think they put them in a corner and wait. They are checked.

The British PO certainly does nothing of the sort, it's off to the airport and away. Countries have no interest in trivial exports, the stuff is gone and it's not their problem.

With incoming stuff, detail collection is just not worth the trouble. Japan has an 8% tax on incoming items, but they do not bother to collect it. Australia has a AU$1000 import tax threshold, which is sensible. Canada has given up collecting legally due taxes on mail, for items under about 5 times the threshold of $20. Britain usually ignores stuff sent basic airmail, because it is usually low value, so it's only Priority and Express that might get dinged for import tax. Even then it's pretty random.

All I can say is what my experience was over many years and a barnfull of stuff. Never a customs problem for my buyers, and just about never a customer problem for me.
Maybe coins, notes, watches, jewellery and small antiques buyers are a better class of people, I know I had buyers who stayed with me for years, buying on a weekly basis, and many of them I'd run an account for, shipping stuff out the day after purchase and they'd settle with a check once a month or so. Treat your customers as honourable and usually, they will be.

 

Book came today. Pleasant surprise as it seems it should have taken a good bit longer. And the book is phenomenal! RIC 4-III

 

Happy to hear that

 

Glad to hear it arrived @OldGoldGuy ! For everyone else, when I order a book from the U.S., shipped through USPS to my APO in England, books take about 6 to 8 weeks to arrive. Oddly only books are met with this delay.

 

Man oh man! I started this thread due to the initiql lack of transparency with Spain's tracking system I experienced. Oh.My.Lord. The USPS should be embarassed. I ordered 2 coins from Australia, and they have been sitting at customs in LA for 2 full weeks now. What.The.Heck.Man??????

When I first starting buying coins and bullion online I stuck to a very strict set of rules; regarding price, speed of delivery, risk of purchase, etc. When I started dabbling in Ancients, I swallowed the fact that maybe Americans just don't have every single coin I want, and that I would need to expand into international markets. When I order off of eBay, domestically, I would say the average transit time is 3-5 postal days; with 5 days being a real stretch but not unheard of. I have had purchases made on a Sunday evening in my hand Tuesday. But this is crazy. I have called twice, once at 7 days sitting at the port, and again at 10 days, and the monkey at the USPS who answers each time lied. One said it had cleared the port, the next said it was still there. 3 days apart. So it left and came back. I don't get it.

My advice from this thread; buying internationally can be a real pain in the tuchas.

 

Agreed; that is why I hardly buy anything from outside the European Union. Within the EU, there is no customs and (in most cases) no currency exchange involved. But of course I am willing to make exceptions in case great bargains can be had. It's just that, as you mentioned, one needs to be patient ...

Christian

 

I ship all over the world. If its over $100 I register it ... I charge $3.50 regular and $7.50 registered and $17.50 for Europe. $20 to Australia - eat the difference ... I never add insurance ... had only one issue in 40 years. However if its over $100 do register it ... worst place for thieves ... IMO ... Italy. I never shipped to Africa ... Mexico also is tough ... incident ... package from Torex to ME ... THREE Vexators ... STOLEN ... at JFK airport in NY. Was the Canadian/NY/NJ hub at the time.

JPL

 

I still have a package that is sitting in customs since October 3rd....

I'll let you know how long it takes when it arrives

 

Customs has nothing to do with USPS. USPS has no authority over them. (Customs is probably trying to decide if they need to be confiscated for some counties "cultural heritage". That is going to become a BIG headache in the future. Italy wants all the Roman coins, Greece want all the ancient greek coins, China want everything before 1911 etc. Sorry if you don't have some kind of documentary proof that it was taken out of the country that wants it before 1990, 1970 whatever, then it gets repatriated back to it's home country.)

 

My experience, if the US customs is unsure if it is a violation, they reship it back to the originating country to evaluate, and many countries make the US look like sprinters. I had a package go from Nigeria to US and back and forth 2 times via England. Even got a call from US customs wanting details on the sender, No mas.

 

Crazy. It just showed up. Totally worth the wait for the price paid. Prob won't buy internationally for awhile unless it is a spankin good deal like this was.

 

I sometimes wonder how I managed to ship out about 41,000 antique and collectable items all over the world with a loss rate of next to nothing. (about 1 in 500)

Well, I don't know, but everything went out by basic untracked airmail, hand addressed, with a customs form saying as near as possible to 'Boring Rubbish' valued at 'Not worth stealing'. This may have helped.

Anything but basic airmail says 'Steal Me, I am Valuable'. Outside the US anything with a bar code on it is considered valuable, because outside the US, only very valuable stuff is sent with some form of Special Delivery with barcode tracking. US USPS users who get tracking of just about anything really do not appreciate this cultural difference.

The joke is that you do not need tracking anyway, it has no magic powers to safe guard your items, and the objective, which ic not to lose if the package goes missing can be achieved much more cheaply with transit insurance or self insurance funded by your buyers.

As for buyers, if they pay with Paypal they have a guarantee if the item fails to arrive, as indeed they do with CC purchases.

Horror stories fill all discussion boards, because they are unusual. Good news is not news, and you don't get the balance, unless someone with a lot of experiences says that the horror stories are very rare exceptions, not normalpractice.