Shipping from Germany

Has anyone else experienced significantly longer postal shipping times from Germany recently? I live in the western US and have shipments coming, one in NY (customs?) since Jan. 2 and one not listed as yet out of Germany ("origin post preparing shipment") from Jan. 16. I have another in NY since Jan. 25.

I have dealt with the dealers for years and 10-20 days total shipping time used to be the range (I keep track of when I order and when it arrives). The coins I have recently ordered from England and Portugal got here in 10-15 days. FedEx coins have come very quickly.

By the way, the coins are not restricted types. So, what explains the German slowdown?

 

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Same problem. Recently received one from Germany that took 9 weeks. The seller said the German post traced it to NY Customs about three weeks after mailed date. It sat in Customs for another 6 weeks.

 

I purposely try and avoid buying coins from Germany. Most have gotten stuck in customs, never to be seen again or they are like the above, weeks and weeks before it arrives.

France was always the fastest for me, but my last france purchase, in a letter no less, took 3 weeks instead of the usual less then 7 days.

 

Mine is only in NY since 2 Feb so I guess I should stop looking for it for another month.

 

My German coin shipments average approx 30 days. Seems the same amount of time it takes to load and ship containers via ocean from China to the East Coast US!

 

Sadly, I always get dinged big-time when I order from Germany (well, when I order from GN) ... I often end-up paying ridiculous border-fees, so I have stopped buying from GN (*sigh*)

 

Really? GN ships Fedex, both their auction site and Ebay account.
They also charged very little for 3 day worldwide services.

Most other companies they cheap registered mail, it's like our first class international, for things valued hundreds, even thousands of dollars, I don't know what they were thinking.
Rest assured though, as long as you used Paypal, you are covered for 6 month and you can open a case 1 month after purchase date.

 

To me from Germany it only takes 4 days )
I know if I sent something to the USA..always stucked at customs NY or gets lost there...

 

Yah, for whatever reason the Fedex packages from GN seem to get checked and dinged for duty-fees more often than their stealth counterparts?

... oh, and sadly I don't get to buy too many coins that are worth thousands of dollars (only "3" measly times have I purchased a coin that rang the $1000 bell)

 

I noticed that with GN as well Steve. Every time I have ordered from them I have been hit with border fees of ~16 dollars!

 

Perhaps that is different for Canada. I have no idea what value triggers the tax but was worried about it once from GN until the form arrived with a $0.00 due. I do note that packages opened and resealed with customs tape seem to take no longer than some that were not touched. Perhaps they x-rayed it and decided that was all they needed to know.

 

I haven't had any issues with Deutsche Post recently. My last purchase from there was my recent Domitian tet sent Registered Mail. Took 10 days.

 

I haven't had trouble when it comes from Germany via FedEx (Pecunem/G&N ships this way) but for all other EU countries sending by carriers other than FedEx, it always takes 3-4 weeks to arrive.

That said, usually I pay Pecunem the day the auction ends and they ship it the next day. I receive the package in 3-4 days, which is amazing. They had an auction on Sunday 2/7 and I paid immediately but haven't received a shipping notice .

 

That's unusual for G&N. Usually Tues or Weds has been normal shipping days for them. I normally get the Fedex notice before they notify me anyway.

 

On the other hand, I ordered a coin from the UK on Jan 31. It arrived yesterday. Only 11 days! Not bad.

 

That's because you dudes are Canadians. US customs is duty free. This country makes money from taxing its own people, not imports.

Fedex and UPS use their own ports. The custom agents at those private ports can charge the recipient a fee for using their facilities/services. 20 some big boxes usually end up 30 or 40 bucks fee.
Since some time ago FEDEX had started sending recipient a letter/bill for those custom charges at their private ports, most of the time with $0 due, like what Doug had gotten. Waste of paper if you asked me.

The aforementioned problem of mail get stuck and lost at customs is only frequent with registered mail from Germany. There are 2 places they get stuck at, Frankfurt/Flughafen and NY ISC. They must have storage spaces filled up to wazoo. My theory is they pull packages from one end only, so the stuff in the back, usually from Christmas rush, don't get moved for half a year.

I lost only a few items this way, and they happened in 2012. One of them was a Vercingetorix Hostilius Saserna I've been asking German senders to use express or Fedex ever since.

 

Some very good info there.

Personally, the only coin that has never showed up was lost at ISC NY from Lanz in Dec. 2010. Perhaps it's still in one of those storage spaces.

 

I've only dealt with modern coins but i order from Germany regularly and don't really have any issues. One time a shipment was held up due to improper paperwork for "country of origin" for the coins, but usually with Fed Ex the coins are here in 2 maybe 3 days.

 

Lanz...no shock there. Maybe some of my old Lucilla purchases and a tet. is keeping your coin company.

 

fedex and ups always report ancient items at customs, when coins come from usa, via HA is was a disaster 1e they charge 50 $ and then customs