Shipping coins to Europe ?

I received a fake Italian crown sized coin from a Ebay seller in Malta. The coin weighed 23 grams. I sent it back to him via USPS, I used First Class mail and it cost $13.50 with no tracking. My local post office told me it would cost as much as $58. for Express Mail if I wanted tracking on this coin.

This is the first time I have ever sent a coin to Europe, what do you experienced coin sellers use when you ship coins to Europe. How do you handle the tracking or delivery confirmation.

 

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58 dollars is plain outrageous! I don't live in the US and hence do not know how it works.

I'm certain that if you document that it is not genuine on ebay, they should reimburse you for it, if not ask you to destroy it and have all funds refunded.

 

The seller apologized and said he did not know the coin was fake. The coin was 4 grams too light. I won the coin for $40. He said to mail it back to him and he would refund me the costs. I used USPS first class because it was the least expensive.

 

Didn't they start full tracking for priority rate that goes international a year or two ago? I haven't used it in a while but I remember full tracking for priority FR envelope or small box I think. A little late now though. I hope they don't say they never received it. That's the dice roll you play if there is no tracking

 

Priority Mail would have been $32.95 and this was a small padded envelope and I sandwiched the coin in cardboard.

 

Whenever you receive something that is fake or not as described on ebay, you HAVE TO OPEN UP A CASE. Ebay will give you a communication channel through this case and ONE of the things you must request is a return shipping label. You shouldn't have to spend another dime to send it back if it was not as described. And if the seller does not give you a return label, there is a time limit where you can request ebay to step in and they make the final decision. You will get a full refund from ebay and nine times out of ten you won't even have to send it back. There was a Panda coin that my brother told me he got for dirt cheap; it was a year that was very valuable. I asked him what he had paid for it and when he told me $50., I said WOW. At the same time I told him to weigh the coin. It was no where near what a Panda should be. I told him to notify ebay that he had a good case with this coin. He told me that he had purchased it last year which was a good 6 months ago. I then asked him to look up the seller and see if he was still selling on ebay. He was and he also told me that the seller had a lot of negative feedbacks from other people that got burned. I told him again to contact ebay that this was fraud, against ebays policy. And if they give you a hard time you tell them that this seller had nothing but negative feedbacks for selling counterfeit coins and how come I was not notified by you. My brother got a full refund, got to keep the coin and sadly this seller is still in business.

 

The priority flat rate envelopes are different. They only cost about $20 +/- to go international depending on exactly where it's going.

 

You might as well just throw the coin in the trash and save the money then paying to have it stolen by shipping to Italy with no tracking. You will be lucky if that ever even makes it on a plane to Europe.

 

Priority FREs and small FRBs are treated as letter class mail, just like first class. You pay extra for nothing.
First class bought online has delivery confirmation to many countries now. Note this is first class, up to 4 pounds. Check E-Delcon, as USPS calls it, on the USPS website.

Basic airmail (First Class International) is as cheap as packages go but still expensive.

International sellers cannot send return labels. This aspect of the stated return policy is simply a mess.

And of course, never put 'coin' on the customs form, numismatic material is the way to go.

 

You might as well just throw the coin in the trash and save the money then paying to have it stolen by shipping to Italy with no tracking. You will be lucky if that ever even makes it on a plane to Europe.

The statement above is complete and utter poppycock. I can only assume it was posted as a joke. And the coin was returned to Malta, a rather different country.

 

No its not a joke. People look for international packages with no tracking on them at several steps along the way. Once it has cleared customs no one pays any attention to them at the airport and the grounds crew are free to go shopping with them basically. And yes the Italian service isn't exactly know for being the most honest either.

 

Can you cite any evidence for this remarkable allegation, or did someone say it on the internet?
I have sent about 10,000 international packages, never with any form of tracking, and has a loss rate of about 1 in 500 items. Most people are in no position to cherry pick 'packages with no tracking'.

Most of the time postal packages are in closed containers destined for the general destination country, and postal services are not stupid, they monitor vulnerable points with CCTV and random searches and inspections. Anyone apart from the most casual worker with the least access has got a valuable pension to lose, it's really not worth the risk for a few dollars.

It seems unknown to many Americans, but in most countries of the world, tracking of routine mail is unknown. Only the most vauable items are sent by some form of special deivery, at considerable extra expense. This marks things out as being worth stealing, but theft from the mail is not a common thing.

The major causes of loss are poor packing and or addressing and misdelivery by the postman.

 

Personal experience which yes is a bit over exaggerated but the point remains that theft is a problem. I have never had a problem (knock on wood) which packages that left through the New York hub but have had 2 of 2 stolen when they left through Chicago. In both instances the package had tracking stop in the USA from the buyer not wanting to pay for it all the way through despite being warned and both times as soon as it was scanned in Chicago it was never seen again. It may be more a localized issue at that airport but it is not the only airport with the risk.

IMO if something isn't worth the tracking fee to ship internationally it is not worth purchasing or selling internationally.

 

It is far cheaper to buy transit insurance or to self insure than it is to pay extra for tracking that in itself does nothing at all to protect the item.

In my opinion the only thing a seller can do to protect an item is to use the customs form to describe it as boring junk (or as near as possible while describing the actual item) and value it at 'Not worth stealing (so I'd always value everything at $20 to $30.

Gold Rolex, $1500 is asking for trouble, old watch, $30 travels safely and discretely.

 

Malta is not Italy.

 

I am not aware of any insurance other than self insurance that would not require tracking.

Completely agree. Word it in a way that is honest but would not draw extra attention.

It is more than likely going through Italy to get there. Tunisia or Libya would be even worse.

 

I am not aware of any insurance other than self insurance that would not require tracking.

Try U-Pic or Shipsurance. They may need some evidence that the item was posted, but this is a far cry from delivery confirmation in a foreign land. Printing a first class shipping label may suffice. Expect to pay around $1 per $100 cover. Insurers know tracking is irrelevant.

Personally I always hand addressed all of my packages on plain labes in plain wrappers. 'Ebay' written all over a package made it more desirable, it was more likely not to be some valueless rubbish like a students dirty socks sent home for mum to wash.

If the mail to Malta passed through Italy it would do so in a sealed container.

 

Yes, I did open a case and Ebay told me that the seller would not be able to send me a shipping label and for me to send the fake coin back to him. And that the seller was responsible for the return shipping.

It might be a issue with the country of Malta. And Malta is a small island east of Sicily.

 

U-Pic requires signed affidavits from the recipient to get paid for USPS claims, DHL claims they want the tracking number ect it's not as simple as just saying it was lost and only certain countries are covered anyway.

Shipsurance seems to want claim forms from recipient as well scanning it briefly. Either way you have to rely on someone else to go out of their way to get your money back since it makes no difference to them. Not really something I want to bank on with international shipping.

Not having tracking to ship something may work for bulk sellers, for small sellers seems very silly to me.

I cut the ebay part off the top of it when I use their pre-printed labels, but given how fast they let buyers open and close cases I would never let something ship internationally sold through there. A customs delay alone could be enough for them to get the full refund and the item for free.

 

You obviously ship thousands of packages to Europe, do you routinely use first class mail when you ship small items, of less than 50 grams.