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<p>[QUOTE="red_spork, post: 3188875, member: 74282"]My worst "slow mail" story nearly turned me off to collecting completely in the process. I had been collecting for about 6 months, buying a pretty eclectic mix of fairly low priced bronzes of various types, mostly under $25 or so. I was finally buying my first denarius and my largest purchase to date($125) and I'd picked out a very specific type I wanted: the Trajan "ARABADQ" denarius with Arabia and a camel on the reverse. I really liked the history of the type and found the reign of Trajan interesting. After wrestling for a week or so over whether or not I really wanted to spend <i>that much</i> on a coin I finally placed the order and the wait began.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin shipped pretty quickly and within a few days was in customs and then nothing for days and days. After about a month I contacted the dealer who asked me to be patient, so I waited. Then the two month mark went by and at about the three month mark I asked the dealer for a refund. He then informed me that the $15 shipping I paid for did not include insurance but as a courtesy he'd offer me store credit on his Vcoins store of half the coin's price. I was a new collector and thought that was just how it worked so I begrudgingly agreed.</p><p><br /></p><p>(Side note: I'm nowhere near as nice about this stuff now. A seller's job is to get the coin to me and it's their responsibility until it gets to me. You get a PayPal chargeback at the 2-2.5 month mark unless there's a good reason that I should wait longer and risk losing PayPal buyer protection, though I'll pay it back if it does eventually arrive).</p><p><br /></p><p>In truth, I was really about ready to give up on ancient collecting in general after this. I'd accepted the dealer's offer but I didn't want another coin, I wanted <i>my denarius</i>. After agreeing to this crummy compromise with the dealer I went off to another online forum to show off my lost coin, report it as lost/stolen and try to garner a little sympathy because I was feeling a bit depressed about this turn of events. Several collectors commented saying it was a great coin and whatnot but I was shocked to see one collector post a picture in the comments of the same denarius I had lost, claiming that he had purchased it a month ago. The toning and marks confirmed it was the same coin, so how had this possibly happened? Had it been stolen in customs? I was mad as hell now and determined to find out.</p><p><br /></p><p>After several private messages, texts and phone calls between the buyer and a couple of dealers I finally learned that the coin had been sold as part of a group lot a couple months before at a British auction house. The purchaser of that lot then sold it at NYINC to a dealer who sold it to it's current owner. That all made sense, but how did it get to that auction house? As it turns out the consignor was none other than the dealer who sold it to me. After that I demanded a full refund including shipping and it was very quickly granted and I thought that was the end of it.</p><p><br /></p><p>Then, a month after that(now at the four month mark since ordering), a package arrived from the dealer. The tracking number was the original one and it even had a "customs inbound" stamp from four months earlier. Confused, I brought it inside and tore open the package to reveal a different denarius than the one I'd ordered but the same type. The dealer had apparently shipped the wrong one, either by accident or possibly after realizing he'd already sold the one I originally ordered, I'm really not sure on this point. At any rate, I was sick of dealing with international postage by this time and I did now have an example of the coin I wanted so I sent the dealer an email with an update and offering to pay for it rather than send it back and we parted way. I've long since sold that coin and I think the original coin has been resold and upgraded by the buyer as well but every time I see this type I can't help but think of the trouble I went through at one point to own one.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>
[QUOTE="red_spork, post: 3188875, member: 74282"]My worst "slow mail" story nearly turned me off to collecting completely in the process. I had been collecting for about 6 months, buying a pretty eclectic mix of fairly low priced bronzes of various types, mostly under $25 or so. I was finally buying my first denarius and my largest purchase to date($125) and I'd picked out a very specific type I wanted: the Trajan "ARABADQ" denarius with Arabia and a camel on the reverse. I really liked the history of the type and found the reign of Trajan interesting. After wrestling for a week or so over whether or not I really wanted to spend [I]that much[/I] on a coin I finally placed the order and the wait began. The coin shipped pretty quickly and within a few days was in customs and then nothing for days and days. After about a month I contacted the dealer who asked me to be patient, so I waited. Then the two month mark went by and at about the three month mark I asked the dealer for a refund. He then informed me that the $15 shipping I paid for did not include insurance but as a courtesy he'd offer me store credit on his Vcoins store of half the coin's price. I was a new collector and thought that was just how it worked so I begrudgingly agreed. (Side note: I'm nowhere near as nice about this stuff now. A seller's job is to get the coin to me and it's their responsibility until it gets to me. You get a PayPal chargeback at the 2-2.5 month mark unless there's a good reason that I should wait longer and risk losing PayPal buyer protection, though I'll pay it back if it does eventually arrive). In truth, I was really about ready to give up on ancient collecting in general after this. I'd accepted the dealer's offer but I didn't want another coin, I wanted [I]my denarius[/I]. After agreeing to this crummy compromise with the dealer I went off to another online forum to show off my lost coin, report it as lost/stolen and try to garner a little sympathy because I was feeling a bit depressed about this turn of events. Several collectors commented saying it was a great coin and whatnot but I was shocked to see one collector post a picture in the comments of the same denarius I had lost, claiming that he had purchased it a month ago. The toning and marks confirmed it was the same coin, so how had this possibly happened? Had it been stolen in customs? I was mad as hell now and determined to find out. After several private messages, texts and phone calls between the buyer and a couple of dealers I finally learned that the coin had been sold as part of a group lot a couple months before at a British auction house. The purchaser of that lot then sold it at NYINC to a dealer who sold it to it's current owner. That all made sense, but how did it get to that auction house? As it turns out the consignor was none other than the dealer who sold it to me. After that I demanded a full refund including shipping and it was very quickly granted and I thought that was the end of it. Then, a month after that(now at the four month mark since ordering), a package arrived from the dealer. The tracking number was the original one and it even had a "customs inbound" stamp from four months earlier. Confused, I brought it inside and tore open the package to reveal a different denarius than the one I'd ordered but the same type. The dealer had apparently shipped the wrong one, either by accident or possibly after realizing he'd already sold the one I originally ordered, I'm really not sure on this point. At any rate, I was sick of dealing with international postage by this time and I did now have an example of the coin I wanted so I sent the dealer an email with an update and offering to pay for it rather than send it back and we parted way. I've long since sold that coin and I think the original coin has been resold and upgraded by the buyer as well but every time I see this type I can't help but think of the trouble I went through at one point to own one.[/QUOTE]
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