Sending coin from USA

How is it possible that sending a 3-4 gram coin can cost so much ?

For example if i bye a Indian Head that costs 20 USD then shipping 20-30 USD + some extra cost 30-40 USD ???

Tell me why does it cost so much? I have bought coins from Canada and the shipping is 8-10 dollars just that.

I would bye much more from USA if the extra prices were lower.

 

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Priority Mail Express International shipping from the US starts at around $25, but should get anywhere in the world rather quickly. This service is the equivalent of EMS for those countries that belong to the Universal Postal Union.

If you want cheaper international shipping than that, it's not going to be good shipping. Also Canada Post is just awful. Add at least a full month on to reasonable delivery times for any Canadian mail. I have a friend who lives in Canada but receives and ships mail from Montana and drives down there weekly to process his mail because of this. The USPS is really good.

 

Keep in mind Americans in general tend to look very inward and not outward. As such, it is common for US-based sellers to not want to ship internationally. Those who do not immediately refuse to ship internationally may do so reluctantly by requiring extra insurance and expensive priority-type of shipping be used.

They can get away with this mentality because of how large the United States is wherein other countries (such as Canada) have smaller populations and a smaller base of potential domestic buyers. Because of this, sellers in other countries tend to make it easier and less expensive for international buyers to buy from them.

 

Ok. I can still understand the shipping 25-30 but the extra 30-40 USD what is that ? Taxes ??

 

But coin collecting is universal. I dont understand that kind of thinking that "we dont want to sell abroad". Americans bye from abroad too ?

 

As we say here sometimes "different strokes for different folks". I ship internationally but only through ebay and their international program. I charge shipping as though it's only for the U.S. customer and ship to the ebay shipping facility where they re-ship to the foreign country. What infuriates the customer is that ebay charges a fortune to continue the shipping process adding their own costs and charging the customer. As a result my sales overseas are near zero these days. I won't ship otherwise because of the possibility of any loss that ebay would not cover.

 

Ok. So now i know who is robbing my money. It is ebay that takes the extra cost. Not good for the seller. Must see the internet if it is possible to bye direct from the seller/store.

 

Yeah this. I do this as well. The liability for shipping abroad from the US is not good; very expensive insurance without good coverage for collectibles. If someone wants to pay for me to ship it to the eBay distribution center and pay their high costs to ship it internationally that's fine with me.

 

I never thought I would see this sentence in print anywhere!

I guess sometimes we forget how good we have it here in the ol' US of A compared to other countries.

 

bye = goodbye/au revoir/adios/cheerio/ciao
(to) buy = (to) purchase

 

Good summary and very true!

 

Because of these extra costs goodbye USA sellers

 

Exactly and ebay does not tell a customer that it's (their/ebay) added costs. This leads the buyer into thinking that the seller is a rip off artist.

 

I sell to the US and the rest of the world, tracked signed for shipping costs around $10, I can track it all the way and get an email when it has been delivered and signed for.

I rarely buy from anywhere but If I see the eBay Global Shipping Program then that is an immediate turn off.

 

That’s not correct. I frequently buy from US sellers who use eBay’s GSP and taxes/charges are clearly listed.

Less valuable items always make it through customs with minimal or no fees. It’s fast and reliable. I agree though, for more expensive items the fees can be very high.

 

It is strange then that when I was still selling this way, that I would get questions from the buyers as to why (I) was charging such ridiculous shipping fees when all I was charging was the exact shipping fees for U.S. delivery. Perhaps a misunderstanding about how this system was working? Could something have changed in the past couple of years where ebay is being more transparent? I guess I won't know until this happens again.

 

Yes, I am pretty sure many buyers are completely unaware of GSP and/or don’t understand how it works. They think they got cheated and the “bad” seller charged too much for S/H... look at the OP’s comments ;-)

 

Yep, ebay is well known for screwing sellers any which way they can. Actually they screw buyers and sellers, it's gotten ridiculous! I only used their global shipping program once and that's it. It's simply not worth it for me, as I'm just a small time seller.

 

My experience is that you can see the price of the item and shipping costs. The extra cost you can see when it is time to pay! And i can tell you all that i was not happy.

 

@mika2019, it's not so much that, but rather "we don't need to sell abroad". It's a simple matter of demographics and markets.

There are 300 million+ people in the US, and coin collecting is a popular hobby here relative to many other countries. What's more, many US collectors collect mostly (or only) US coins, and many US dealers sell mostly US coins. I've been to many coin shows over the years and have seen dealers who have only US coins in their inventory, and their booths are usually the ones that attract the most shoppers.

Consequently, many US buyers AND sellers have no need to incur the hassle, expense and risk of dealing internationally. The coins are here, and the buyers are here. I understand why that would annoy someone like yourself, but market forces will always follow the path of least resistance.

To a great extent, the same is also true of world coins. There's a huge inventory of world coins in the US (and even more if you include our next door neighbor, Canada). I've been a collector for about 45 years, and for most of that time my focus has been on world coins. Not once in all those years have I needed to buy outside of North America to find a quality example of a world coin I wanted.

P.S. I know I'm generalizing about US vs. world, and some world coin enthusiasts may take exception, but all you need to do is tally the US posts versus world posts every day on a US-based forum like this one to know it's true — and by a wide margin.