Has anyone in the USA recently been successful in ordering and receiving coins from Germany? I had some bad experiences with shipments from Germany about six months ago, either being told that it was impossible to ship from Germany to the USA, or, with the one coin that was shipped, the package taking almost two months to reach me despite my paying extra for DHL. But I thought I'd try again, and ordered a coin I really liked through VCoins yesterday from Münzhandlung Ritter in Düsseldorf. There was no problem in placing the order, but I received an email from the dealer this morning stating the following: "unfortunately, we are currently unable to send goods to America due to insurance reasons. Therefore we will cancel your PayPal payment. We apologize for any inconvenience." Has anyone been told anything similar by a German dealer lately? Does anyone know what "insurance reasons" they could mean, exactly? If the shipment were lost I'd get my money back from Paypal anyway even without postal insurance, right? In any event, shouldn't they really be stating this up front on their VCoins site to avoid wasting the time of the USA buyers who, after all, make up a substantial portion of the VCoins customer base? Should I contact VCoins and tell them my opinion on this? It's very frustrating when you place an order and find out you can't have the coin you think you just bought! Whether because someone else supposedly bought the coin (as in @furryfrog02's situation), or because of something like this.
Very frustrating when this stuff happens. I just don't get when some folks can and some cannot. Savoca is in Germany and they are the fastest in the biz. 2-4 day shipping!
Sorry to hear that I got my Kunker shipment/ sent via Deutsche post A-OK/ also one from Gorny & Mosch. But I live in Canada....maybe different policies..... John
I have never ordered anything from further away than Canada. So many interesting coins I've seen from Germany and Spain but the stories of them taking months to arrive, or like your situation, getting cancelled completely, has scared me off. I think it would be good for vcoins to have sellers put something in their store stating that they don't ship to the US (or wherever). I've seen some stores that have similiar things but it definitely isn't across the board. It wouldn't hurt to contact them and make your voice heard. That being said, I contacted them on Sunday and the auto-generated email says 2 business days and I have yet to hear from them. Also, the coin I bought and then was told it was "sold" and then eventually relisted, is still up for sale...I haven't heard from the seller either. Nor have I received my refund via paypal.
I bought a low-value autograph this past weekend and didn't know it was going to take so long for it to arrive. It's from a german seller & this is what he told me this morning. He even included screenshots from Germany to L.A. where I live showing the long arrivals but assures they to get delivered as the screenshots showed to me. So I guess I will be patient.
I just won an auction catalog in the Solidus auction this weekend. I'll let you know how it works out,
Maybe depends on shipping method. Savoca gets stuff from Munich to the US in like two days with FedEx.
Haven't had any problems with German dealers. But I don't believe I've purchased anything from Germany during the Covid-era. My most recent coin was from Portugal (Numismatica Prado). Still hasn't arrived yet (About 12 days into it).
In my experience, London Ancient Coins is the fastest in the biz. For example, I placed an order Sunday night, it was shipped Monday morning London time via DHL Express, and it's scheduled for delivery here in NYC by the close of business today. So about 36 hours, and that's been standard for them.
My quickest coin was 48 hours from the Netherlands, using regular mail surprisingly. The shipment was sent from Antwerp and arrived at the San Francisco Int'l mail center in about 12 hours. Got it the next day.
I rarely buy coins from overseas myself; if I do, it is typically from Canada or the UK. However, last summer, I purchased a sestertius of Marcus Aurelius from a German dealer on eBay, and it took almost a month for it to arrive.
3 months? Anyone know how long it took to post from one side of the Empire to the other back in the day?
Shipments from Germany to the US are basically not happening as far as I can tell. I have packages I ordered back in October that are still sitting in Germany and are just not leaving the country.
Ritter is a fine dealer, but there's someting going on with Deutsche Post, a lot of delays and missing parcels I understand. I have had similar issues with a German seller, a good seller too, and I live practically next door!! It took 6 weeks, I could have gone on my bike and would have gotten it faster. Be safe, and try to avoid shipments over the ocean I'd recommend. Too bad you really like the coin though and now have missed it out :-(
Kunker and Savoca have been delivering by DHL and FedEx, respectively, and I have experienced no issues.
I went through MA Shops in late November with the item coming from Germany and I got it before Christmas. I know Delcampe specifically states which countries the sellers can't sell to. Bums me out because the coins I want are from people in Egypt.