I just won my first coin from Noble in Australia. I'll reveal it in due course, but I've gotten so superstitious lately with all the covid related shipping delays. I'm just curious what other people's experience with the house have been, especially those who live outside of Australia. Thanks all!
Australia shipping internationally has been a disaster for the most part this year in my experience. Nothing against that auction house as I have no experience with them, but several shipments to Australia this year I have had significant issues
When I won a lot from Noble in April it took just over a month to get to the UK. 3 weeks of that it was sat in Australian customs. Having said that, at the same time I had a shipment from the US take even longer. I had a few from Canada that took just 4 days.
I purchased a Pescennius Niger denarius from Roma Numismatics in January, delivery to Aus, never made it, although tracking said it was delivered to my house. I was very sad. From what I have noticed, Australian customs can be quite unpredictable. And based on the lack of receiving numerous other packages since, my postie seems to fit the same description.
In my opinion it was handled really poorly, they usually shipped by Fedex but this time for some reason they decided to ship by Royal Mail which tracks it but doesn’t require sign on delivery. They didn’t have the correct house number on the online tracking but assured me the package would have been marked correctly as it is printed based on my account info. The lady managing it on Roma’s end was really nice, unfortunately she just started there about a week after it was shipped. She maintained regular contact with me, but kept saying that they can’t do anything until Royal Mail officially nominated it as lost (which is probably true), as it was taking a long time (months) I decided to make a Paypal claim as I was possibly going to lose my money and my option for recourse through PayPal was nearing an end. Ultimately PayPal refunded me within a couple weeks, after that I had no response from Roma. I have purchased a lot from them, now I’m afraid to go back. I still believe they are a good auction house, it was just an unfortunate set of circumstances. It is proving to be a hard gap to fill in my collection.
Very unfortunate all around. But it just shows how important it is to use PayPal.. more expensive than some options but the guarantee is well worth it... otherwise you are rolling the dice.
In my experience in the past, Noble has been great to work with. Even with a 13 hour time difference, they took the time to call me during an auction to ensure an issue was taken care of. Granted, this was well before todays environment.
I sympathize for you. I've also had a problem with a misaddressed shipment, domestically. Also, over a year ago, Roma sent a package with the wrong zip code. It ended up in a delivery loop in Missouri. Fortunately I was able to sort that situation out with the post office. These are stressful times at many levels, and I think Roma and other firms are trying to do their best in difficult circumstances.
My first two bids in a Noble sale maybe two years ago were both well over estimate, because the coins were rare variants I needed, and I assumed that, as in any honest auction, my bids would be reduced to one step above the underbidder. I was suspicious when I acquired both coins, but at my top bid in each case. An Australian friend I consulted told me that Noble is notorious for not reducing bids.
I too participated in Noble, and won a few lots. Being based in Australia, it was a great opportunity to finally pick up some ancients. My experience with international shipping this year has been nothing short of a disaster. Only one coin from Leu Numismatik has actually gotten through.
Out of the several coins I had sent to Aus since everything started they all got through thankfully, but they had an average delivery time of 2-3 months and they were all expedited shipping methods. Enough of a disaster just can't do it anymore until things normalize some and I believe even eBay with the global shipping program has excluded Australia for the time being the delays are so bad