How long befor a package is considered lost?

I have a coin that has been stuck in shipping from Germany. For a week it has been
"Preparation for onward transport" Not sure how long before I can consider it an issue.

 

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Germany is notoriously slow.

 

Germany has a serious problem at the moment with international post. Even their interior postage and courier is slower than usual. My last auction wins, from a German house, took over three weeks just to get here in Spain.

 

Give it 28 days. It will show up.

Z

 

This is why I really try to only buy from US dealers. The USPS is bad enough. LOL

 

I just sent something three day priority shipping domestically and it sat for five days in one place and took nine days. Not much service for $60 postage.

 

I've collected on insurance a few times and they always wanted to wait a month. This was a long time ago though and it might be different now. It can be hard to collect even with your ducks in a row.

 

I get it. I just got a set of retainers that was sent 2nd day air and I got them 6 days later.

 

Meh. You just need to re-calibrate your expectations when purchasing from across the pond. I have found some AMAZING items at really good pricing, that I could otherwise never find here in the US.

I've bought some really nice stuff from sellers in the Ukraine (pre-conflict), Israel, Hungary, Poland, etc. The first one or two shipment I was nail-biting, but once I got a feel for the time it took, I stopped worrying until day 28+.

I never had anything go missing, and less than half a dozen items took more than that. 28 days (calendar, not business) seems to be the "magic number" to me. I have also been surprised on many occasions where a shipment from Sweden, Korea, or thereabouts took less than 14 days.

Z

 

I almost exclusively purchase from overseas auctions and don't really have any issues. Regarding mail delivery, you get what you pay for. You pay a king's price for FedEx but it usually arrives within a few days of it being shipped. If you go cheap and pay for European postal (eq. to USPS) it will take for every. I've had some packages take as long as 5-6 weeks from when they were shipped.

 

Deutsche post or DHL?

I've had much better luck with DHL in the past. Very speedy! I've gotten all my DHL shipments EARLY

 

I've had some delays with DHL, 2-3 week delivery, FedEx seems to be the most reliable.

 

Sometimes it can take months.

 

months ... yeah .. Picky Bowels ... from eastern europe

 

What the....? Picky bowels??

 

that was just an .. inadvertent typo ... lol

The package was stuck from November 24 until January 13th. Nearly two months.
I gave up and thought it was lost.

 

I vividly remember an example during the 1990's when I had ordered a very expensive coin, and it was 30 days in domestic post. I really sweated bullets then.

I've only ordered one coin from Austria. The useless export permit took forever. Germany also usually takes forever. Mysteriously, a Dutch dealer's coins have been showing up, with a German address, but it's been even faster than the normally fast shipping times.

I haven't been brave enough to try Spain.

 

My personal record is one year and three months.
I was convinced, that the package had been lost forever, but it was pleasant surprise, when it finally arrived to my mailbox at some point

 

First you order the coin, then it has to be shipped. Not everyone ships right away. Then it goes through the postal system in the country it was mailed in. Then it must clear outbound customs. Not all countries process immediately. Some let it sit for weeks, if not longer.
Once the country it was ordered from releases it, it makes its way to the US or the country you are in. And from there it goes straight into customs. Now it must clear customs in that country. Again it can sit for weeks or longer until customs clears. Once cleared it’s given back to the Postal Service and it will be on its way to you.
It just depends upon the country you’re ordering from the shipper the country is going to and of course customs in both of those countries. Sometimes it can be shipped very quickly and other times it will take literally months.

 

Some countries are faster than others. I thought at first that the Netherlands took forever because orders from Biga would take forever (although I really liked the coins). After my orders with Tom Vossen, this is not the case. His are 1.5 to 2 weeks, order to door. Not bad.

France seems to be even faster, and Dubai is around the same time as France.

Germany; a month.

Austria; a month, because of the export permit.

My one experience with Italian post wasn't bad. For whatever reason, a Belgian dealer sent the order out via Italian Post. Circa 2 weeks.

UK - 2 to 4 weeks, but since I only order from one dealer there, the times may vary. It takes the dealer about a week to put it in the post.