Options for shipping from Europe?

So there's a coin at a German Vcoins shop I'm interested in at 50 euros. I put it in my cart and go to check out. But there's only one shipping option to the U.S.: FedEx at $22.50. I would not mind paying that rate for an expensive coin, but 22.50 is 40% of the price of the coin itself.

In their terms, the shop indicates that they are open to alternate shipping methods. I was hoping for something more in the 10 euro range. I know we are ultimately only talking about a $10 difference, but I have a pretty strict monthly budget that I try to stick to.

I would like to request a more budget-friendly shipping option, but I don't know what recommendation I should make to them. Has anyone ever done this sort of thing? Is there a cheaper option, or is anything coming from Europe pretty much going to be $22 to ship?

 

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I am having a coin shipped from Austria right now and they are charging me $7.00 for Registered Mail to the US. The seller is Marc Walter on VCoins.

 

You can likely get the country's registered mail for shipping. I have purchased many coins from European countries that came registered or just regular mail and only cost around $5-$10 to ship.

 

I have been shipped coins from Europe by registered mail and have never had a problem.

 

It depends on the country and the dealer. Some countries have more options than others. I buy a lot of books from the US, and some sellers can ship for next to nothing, literally seeling for about $5 incluclusive. Others quote absolutely eye-watering rates with no flexibility. Worth asking, anyway.

 

I actually get cheaper registered shipments from Europe than US, Tom Vossen, GB Collection, Gerhard Rohde, Klassische Muenzen to name a few but my favorite US store for insured is Aegean Numismatics at about $7 , and of course Ken Dorney for free ordinary post.

 

The critical factor is the perception of risk by the seller.
My risk experience shipping thousands of packages including many coins, all over the world, is that my loss rate was about 1 in 500 items. All were sent by standard untracked airmail, under 100 grams fro Britain cost less than $4. I relied on the basic honesty of my customers, antique and coin buyers are usually mature and responsible buyers. It may have also helped that the customs form description was always as boring and generic as possible and the stated value was never more than $20 or so, in other words, not worth stealing.

I think many sellers do not do the simple risk calculation for self insurance. They will not assume a tiny risk themselves, despite high shipping charges being the single biggest deterrent to buyers.
Germany should have some equivalent to standard small packet airmail that the seller could use, but a risk adverse seller will not be likely to consider it.
Americans are partly to blame. The US is one country in the world where postal tracking is very cheap or included in the mail price. Therefore thay expect everything to be tracked, not realising that in the rest of the world only very valuable items are sent by a tracked method because being unusual it is also much more expensive.
The only advantage of Fedex for the buyer is that the item will arrive in a couple of days, not a couple of weeks.

 

If you tell the seller you are willing to accept full responsibility, they will most likely agree to ship however you wish. This is what I have done in the past.

 

Its pouring rain, so I am still at home
Bing is spot on, I get all my coins shipped via registered "neutral" letter post. Coins costing anywhere from 300 Euros to 7000 for a Transylvania AV Dukat. Out of last 440 shipments in past ten years....all arrived safe at my house. The ONLY shipment that was "MIA" was back in 1999 a AV Aureus FDC Trajan Decius from CNG. Problem was they sent it with customs papers with detailed info/ someone in customs has that coin now!

 

I'm a bookseller from the Netherlands. Shipping coins (well-packed) would start at $5-7. We are often shipping books to the USA, in 999 out of 1000 parcels all goes well. More difficult countries are France and ( just recently) Australia. Registered or not registered doesn't really matter.

 

I'd spent my cash at a coin fair, and the last dealer I visited didn't take cards. He just let me take the coins home and wire him the money later. Said when he started dealing everything was sent out on approval with settlement due in thirty days.

 

Wow. All this is very helpful. Let's say that I tell the seller that I will assume risk. But then the coin is lost. ( I am squeamish because I have indeed lost a coin recently in US Customs.) If I paid by PayPal, does PayPal seller protection cover items lost in the mail?

On the Paypal website, they say they cover items never received or were damaged in shipping. But the former statement implies that they cover items that were never shipped by a fraudulent seller, perhaps not something lost by the Postal Service. Anybody have any experience here?

 

The Australian who said he didn't receive the book, very easily got my money back from Paypal - a bit too easy I must say.

 

I have a coin coming from Canada that was shipped more than two weeks ago - 15 days, in fact, and it hasn't shown up yet. Getting nervous. Shipped by Canada post with no tracking. Is this normal?

 

It always takes at least three weeks for coins to arrive here in Aus. unless it's Fedex I have had them in three days.

 

Let's say that I tell the seller that I will assume risk. But then the coin is lost.

So you forget about it. Just one of those things. If you make a PP claim it is the seller who fumds the refund, not Paypal, and this is contrary to your undertaking with the seller.

But the former statement implies that they cover items that were never shipped by a fraudulent seller

Paypal will want at least evidence the item was shipped. This implies some form of tracked mail, which from most countries adds far more expense than the actual risk merits.

It would have cost me, at the time, about the equivalent of 9 dollars extra for tracked shipping. Untracked I put 1 dollar in my rainy day self insurance fund for every package. Far cheaper for the buyer. I must have saved my buyers $80,000 in wasted money and my actual losses including damaged items probably came to no more than $1000 over 10 years. Since I did not pay anyone else for insurance I got to keep all the surplus self insurance money not used for refunds.
Where there is no possibillity of a catastrophic loss, as there could be with auto or house insurance, it often makes sense to assume the risk yourself, insurance companies are in it for a profit, sp keep that profit. No messy claims procedure either.

A bit off topic but I think people do not really think paying for insurance all the way through. They just do it.

 

I just found an invoice from a Frankfurt seller a few months ago who shipped an inexpensive coin to me registered international shipping with Deutsche Post for €8.00. So that's what I suggested to the dealer, at buyer's risk.

So we will see if the dealer is okay with that, and I'll just roll the dice on a 50 euro coin. Thanks for all these responses. Hopefully this thread has been informative for others as well.

 

In my experience registered is a lot safer (but slower than ordinary post) the only coin I have lost in post was ordinary mail from US a cheaper coin about $80, from Aegean Numismatics, he refunded the money promptly as his sales carry insurance.

 

All excellent points. Main reason to insure is if you mistrust the other party to the trade or the postal system. In my experience the postal system here has been fine and the people I've dealt with have been honest. Self-insurance is always best if you can afford it; you're not paying insurance company overhead and other people's claims. I'd almost always choose the cheapest shipping option.

 

UPDATE: Just heard back from Savoca. They are unwilling to ship registered mail from Germany to US at buyer's risk. Oh well. Didn't hurt to ask.

I may pay the 22.50 for FedEx, but given all the coins on my want list, I will likely just move on.

I doubt Savoca will shut down due to the lost sale, but I wish they could be a little flexible. But it's their business, not mine.