3rd world mail service in the U.S. ?

That situation with the shipment from Germany is very odd. My guess is that for some reason the "hand off" between Deutsche Post and the USPS tracking had a glitch. If your shipment is indeed in US Customs, then it becomes a situation of wait and see.

The opaque nature of a shipment's status within US Customs became a sore point for me when that shipment from Canada was detained by them for almost three months. Communicating with US Customs is very difficult, especially when they provide a telephone number on the letter of detention that was not correct. Documents and supporting statements were sent to them by certified mail without any acknowledgement. Oh well, ancient history....

 

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I do want to say that the employees of the United States Postal Service are dedicated workers providing an essential service to our country.

Edited

 

i concur with that, its the upper management and their philosophy causing the problems

 

Huh, that's really quick. My other domestic bricklink orders from the same day are already here, so I'm thinking to contact the seller and see what's up. I don't think I insured the order (it's only 15 euros) but now I'm wonder if I should have.

 

They bailed out the banks. They bailed out the airlines. They bailed out Wall Street.
They bailed out insurance companies. All of these companies made a profit. Did they save any money? They all gave multi million dollar bonuses to executives. So the bailouts are just paying them with my tax money. When they should have just saved some profits for a rainy day.
The one institution that we need is the post office. Are they bailing them out? No, they are trying to break them by forcing them to keep more money than nec. in reserve for pensions. This is a pathetic disgrace. And when the post office collapses under all the work and manpower shortages, and not enough money to keep it afloat, it will cost $5 to mail a letter. Oh that's right no one mails a letter anymore.

 

...oh, i do sometimes when i'm feeling nostalgic...

 

What @robinjojo describes has happened to be multiple times, especially with packages shipped Deutsche Post. It must be incredible - the magical world the package inhabits that's beyond the realm of borders or even human palpability - but eventually the package returns back to our reality.

The only recourse I've found is to check the USPS status every few days. The USPS tracking number is the same as Deutsche Post's. Packages tend to take 4-6 weeks to get here.

Interestingly, I'll usually ask to pay the Fedex fees - roughly 30 Euros - but some sellers claim that their cost is 200 Euros or so. For those sellers who do use it, I receive my package in a few days.

 

Customs probably held it up.

 

It seems like 3-4 weeks has become the new normal for international coin shipments, at least in my experience. More often than not customs is to blame. In some countries like Spain and Austria, the auction house has to apply for an export permit, which adds time on the front end.

I recently had a package temporarily seized by US customs - it took more than three months from the shipment date to secure its release, and it was an ordeal. It was difficult to connect with the right staff at DHL - there were dead ends in the phone tree, the department email address I was provided bounced back, and specialist DHL staff operated in silos. This was complicated by the fact that they only communicated through email and didn't actively track the evolution of my claim. Eventually, with the help of the awesome staff at Numismatik Naumann, additional paperwork was provided and my package was released. I had to pay a $44 'fee' (not to be confused with a 'tariff') for the privilege of having customs open and interfere with my shipment. Knock on wood, but I've never had a coin not reach me at this point.

I always try to be proactive in checking my tracking status often and questioning weird status updates as they arise. The way that the status messages are written often doesn't offer transparency into what's really happening.

I have found that the sailing is smoother when the coins are sent through regular registered post, versus private shippers like FedEx or DHL.

While it's no fun to wait, I have to remind myself that we live in an amazing and interconnected world. I ordered a 50 lb piece of fossilized coral from a seller in West Java, Indonesia for my lapidary hobby, and it showed up on my doorstep less than a week later through DHL Express. I can't think of another time in human history when something like that would be possible.

 

As an aside, I once paid for some coins from Leu and they sent me a Swiss Post link that indicated the package was being sent to Australia! (for reference, I live near Seattle)

I sent a frantic email to them and they replied it was just a bug in the Swiss Post system. The next day, it had my correct address.

My best guess is their system got Washington (WA) and Western Australia (WA) mixed up.

 

At the other end of the scale, I bought two coins at the May 5 Roma Numismatics auction. After I paid for them via Wise.com, Roma shipped them to me from the UK via DHL Express on May 11 at 2:30 pm London time ( = 9:30 am EST). They arrived at my door here in NYC 34 hours later, on May 12 at 7:30 pm EST.

 

So this one just turned out to be a case of "3rd world dealer service" rather than postage service.

I asked the dealer if there was a tracking number for my coin, and they replied that they'd emailed me to say that "the coin was not available, and they didn't accept credit cards". Meanwhile, the only communication I'd ever received from the dealer was an automated reply thanking me for my order and credit card payment (made via their checkout system).

I'm not sure why they needed two excuses "not available" and "don't accept credit card payments" when one would have sufficed, and it seems a bit strange to offer credit card payment checkout and then say they don't accept credit cards!

I'd feel better about it if they just claimed the dog ate it.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

The coin shipped to me from Germany on 13 April has suddenly made an appearance on the USPS tracker, after disappearing for almost six weeks:

May 25, 2022, 3:21 pm
Arrived at USPS Regional Destination Facility
JAMAICA NY INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER

Your item arrived at our JAMAICA NY INTERNATIONAL DISTRIBUTION CENTER destination facility on May 25, 2022 at 3:21 pm. The item is currently in transit to the destination.

May 25, 2022, 11:21 am
Processed Through Facility
ISC NEW YORK NY(USPS)

Origin Post is Preparing Shipment

May 4, 2022, 10:18 pm
Missing Mail Search Request Initiated, Missing Mail Search Request ID 14375354

April 13, 2022, 8:40 pm
Acceptance
GERMANY

April 13, 2022, 6:09 pm
Acceptance
GERMANY

So, fingers crossed!

I still haven't given up completely on the shipment from Spain, although it's very frustrating not to be able to track it at all. I really don't think I'm going to bid in any Spanish auctions again, unless shipment via DHL Express, Fedex, or UPS Express is possible.

 

I've never participated in auctions from Spain, primarily because I focus on a couple of firms, Roma and CNG, but I have ordered coins from Spain through eBay, VCoins and MA Shops and haven't experienced any truly prolonged shipping delays. Maybe its just luck, I don't know.

I do hope that your shipment arrives from Spain.

 

I've ordered from retail Spanish dealers like Aeternitas and occasionally Lucerna and Marti, and haven't had any big problems -- even with waiting for the export permit. It's the auction houses that seem to be a problem for me, and for others based on what I've heard.

 

Well, the coin from Germany that I won in a Künker auction, sent to me via Deutsche Post on April 13, was finally delivered today, after six weeks. The tracking history is devoid of any information during the period between April 13 and the coin's arrival in the USA on May 25. However, these mysterious stamps on the back of the envelope may provide a clue:



Does anyone read Chinese? I guess that China is on the way from Germany to the USA if the plane goes east!

 

Your shipment was clearly routed through China, something that I've never seen for an item sent from Germany or anywhere else in Europe - very unusual. That is a very long route to New York, for sure, or even California.

 

It certainly is! But I'm very glad I finally received it. I had pretty much given up, mostly because of the complete disappearance of the package from the radar for so long. Now, if only the coin from Spain, sent around the same time, would ever show up, I'd really be happy!

 

Yeah, that China thing is astounding. Wow! Somebody please translate.

Let's see, I've had 2 coins mailed to me from within the continental US make side trips to Hawaii. (To my wife: Hey honey my Faustina sestertius is vacationing on the beach in Hawaii! She just shook her head, not at all surprised.) That Faustina, she sure gets around.

Then there was the time the coin I ordered from Alabama went straight to Puerto Rico right as a hurricane was bearing down on the island. I almost crapped myself, but it all turned ok eventually.

Thing is, I strongly suspect this sort of thing was happening all the time before we could track mail online. We were just spared the ugly details, and frankly I was better off being kept in the dark.

Right now: I ordered something from a town 2 hours south of me. Foolish me, I thought it would get here quickly. Now its bouncing around like a pinball in Washington, a state north of me. It could easily go to Hawaii, and I am not joking.