World Coin Purchasing Sites

Discussion in 'World Coins' started by Histman, Nov 17, 2019.

  1. Histman

    Histman Too Many Coins, Not Enough Time!

    Thanks to all that have responded. I have some great members here who have started offering coins to fill in my request at no cost to me. I thank all of you and continue to say this is a great coin site.
     
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  3. Jaelus

    Jaelus The Hungarian Antiquarian Supporter

    As always, mlov is a wellspring of information. I wholeheartedly agree with the above. I frequently use vatera.hu (the Hungarian eBay) for Hungarian coins.

    I've also frequently run into buyers that do not ship abroad and/or do not use PayPal. Also, I've found it is prohibitively expensive to pay via bank transfer for smaller purchases and it's not worth the fees.

    My solution to this - I developed a relationship with a dealer in Hungary! When I am interested in buying on Vatera, I send them the auction link. They bid for me, pay for the coins themselves, and have them shipped to them locally (or in some cases pick them up in person). They also have my want list, so they go to local shops for me to inspect coins first hand (also for when I find a coin I'm considering in a dealer's inventory online).

    Their service is especially useful for moderns, where I can potentially waste tons of money buying examples that look nice in pictures, but don't make my target grade. I've found for moderns, people frequently sell coins with stock photos or pull out of rolls etc. Fine if it's local, but when I'm looking for an MS67+ and paying a lot to ship it, I don't want to end up with a 64. Having a local buyer in the country solves this problem nicely as they can look through bags and rolls and select examples that meet my grade.

    The dealer invoices me for the coins in batches and ships many purchases together to me here in the states. I pay them a flat percentage for their services, and frequently buy from their own inventory, but I actually save money on this arrangement compared to what I would pay for the individual shipping charges and other fees. I also have saved myself from making bad purchases of coins that I wouldn't like in hand but are too inexpensive to return abroad. When they go to look at a coin for me and tell me it's not for me, I know I can trust their assessment as they know my collection and standards.

    I encourage anyone with an advanced specialized world collection to try this approach!
     
  4. Mr. Flute

    Mr. Flute Well-Known Member

    Jaelus,

    I presume you speak Hungarian (particularly Hungarian coin collecting terms of art) in order to make your arrangement work?
     
  5. Jaelus

    Jaelus The Hungarian Antiquarian Supporter

    Well enough to get by, especially regarding numismatic jargon, however, the dealer I work with also speaks English.
     
    Mr. Flute likes this.
  6. Mr. Flute

    Mr. Flute Well-Known Member

    Nice.
     
  7. mlov43

    mlov43 주화 수집가

    I also notice that people based in Korea who use the U.S., Canadian, and the European countries' versions of eBay will often have their purchases from eBay sent to a freight-forwarding company of some sort (and probably run by Koreans). The freight forwarding company they use here in the U.S.A. is located in Portland so that they can get around paying for shipping directly to Korea. For some reason, USPS postage from the USA to Korea is around 2 times to 3 times the cost of the same exact postage services from Korea to the USA.
     
  8. mlov43

    mlov43 주화 수집가

    You can make transactions work with translate.googlecom, but you must use super simple language in English when translating it, like:

    "I want to purchase this coin: Item #123456, 10 Yuan coin, 1947. How much is the postage cost to United States? Please tell me the total price.

    Please tell my your PayPal email address.

    My address is:

    Bob Jones
    123 Garden Drive
    Frostbite Falls, Minnesota 52345
    U.S.A."
     
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  9. mlov43

    mlov43 주화 수집가

    Another way I've found world coins was by using search engines (Google, etc.) for the title of the world coin I'm looking for, both in English and the native language.

    ie, for a South Korean coin, I search: "50 won coin 1972" and variations of that, and "50원짜리 주화 1972년" and variations on that.

    Do an IMAGE search. Scroll through the images until you see one on a retail site.

    I ~occasionally~ find a coin for sale sitting, collecting dust in some totally unheard-of coin retailer's website, and often priced at half the going rate.

    I recently found a coin this way that is going for a minimum of $100 USD in BU everywhere else, but I bought from some unknown-to-me coin dealer in Europe for only $36.
     
    Jaelus likes this.
  10. Jaelus

    Jaelus The Hungarian Antiquarian Supporter

    Yeah I've found some obscure medals in image searches. That works pretty well for finding dealers.
     
  11. Histman

    Histman Too Many Coins, Not Enough Time!

    I've tried that for other coins. The ones I'm looking for in this project are the $1-$2 dollar varieties in decent shape. Ebay is good for those, I was just looking for a way to buy the ones I need in bulk to avoid the individual shipping that comes with Ebay.

    Thanks!
     
  12. mlov43

    mlov43 주화 수집가

    Still the best source for non-U.S. coins is not the internet, IMO: I think it's still coin shops and coin shows. The problem for most of us is that the shows and shops are not around us and happening all the time.

    I would imagine that the best way to get "coins in bulk" would be to be a dealer and travel from coin show to coin show and do business with other dealers. Most coin transactions take place between dealers.

    Unless somebody has a better idea...
     
  13. Alaric DeArment

    Alaric DeArment New Member

    I tend to rely on VCoins - tons of good stuff to be found there.
     
  14. physics-fan3.14

    physics-fan3.14 You got any more of them.... prooflikes?

  15. baseball21

    baseball21 Well-Known Member

    It's because of the international postal agreement. USA to basically anywhere is more expensive than basically anywhere to the USA.
     
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