Shipping from Germany

To be honest 50% of retail value sounded insane for buying lots.
Sometimes I go to model and gun shows, buy people's entire table then list and sell them one by one online, I almost never pay more than 25% of what I think the retail value would be.
There are overheads, platform charges, paypal fees, labor paid to maintain my warehouse and online stores, let's say that all come to 25% of sales value, that leaves me 50% as margin, but only if all the items would be sold 100% retail - not likely. So I need to discount to get rid of stock (because otherwise they just lock down my cash and not generate income).
In order to really benefit from this ordeal, I need to drop my profit margin to 20-25%. You see, if a dealer pays you 50% retail, then he would make nothing out of it, why should he do that for you?

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

I've been a lurker in this thread and find it all rather fascinating. I have no view of dealers profits one way or the other. My only gripe (sometimes) comes from exorbitant shipping fees. One seller will charge $3 shipping while another will charge $20, with no difference in shipping type. Now, I'm all for honest shipping costs, but when I see those high fees, I just look elsewhere. It's almost as if some sellers try to pad their profit with extra shipping fees.

 

This thread blows ...

Man, if you're so cheap that $5-20 is gonna stop you from buying a 2000 year old coin, then maybe you should just stay home and collect $5 dollar bills and $20 dollar bills?!

 

Sorry but most people aren't rich like you to ignore the fact they had paid $20 and gotten $3 worth of service. Even less would ignore the fact they paid expedited service for something they felt valuable and ended up losing that item because the seller sent it first class. But maybe that's just my opinion...

but then again, you didn't even know you were getting ripped off by Roma till I told you what you paid got you snail mail, and even knowing that you were still content, so it would make perfect sense that you felt that way.

 

Really little brother? You have no problem spending extra money for the same service? Now that blows my mind. If I buy a 2000 year old coin and have it shipped for $5, why, oh why, would I buy the same 2000 year old coin and spend $15 more. I'll take the extra money I might save on shipping and apply it to my next purchase of a 2000 year old coin.

 

Oh, and btw, I'm proud to be called cheap (although frugal is more to my liking).

 

What's Roma? (I think you've got the wrong dude?)

 

When I first became a dealer years ago we all wore suits and ties. It was a different time! Now if I wore anything better than jeans nobody would stop at my table!

 

I got the package from Roma today, here's scan of envelop with postage amount and service type printed. I've posted screenshot of their bill so you guys can see for yourself whether my assessment was accurate.

Again, my issue really isn't with their shipping charge, but rather they did not choose shipping method according to the charges.

 

Dear Brassnautilus,

Let me say first off that I am very sorry that you experienced a slow delivery of your coins. We do always try to have customers' purchases delivered to them as swiftly as we can possibly manage, and while sometimes we may fall short of our own or our customer's expectations in this regard, we are always looking to make improvements to the quality of the service we provide and feedback is extremely helpful in letting us know where we need to focus our attention.

Unfortunately, I found this thread only by accident, and clearly a month too late to be able to participate fully in the discussion, but in any case let me respond to you now to help clarify the matter of shipping and insurance charges.

Our shipping and insurance charges are based on a packet's value, not weight. These charges are published on our website under our Frequently Asked Questions page. They are as follows:

- £6.50 for orders valued from £1 - £500
- £8.50 for orders valued from £501 - £1500
- £17.00 for orders valued from £1501 - £3000
- For orders valued over £3001: from £25.50
For international customers:- £12.50 for orders valued from £1 - £500
- £25 for orders valued from £501 - £3000
- For orders valued over £3001: sent by Fedex. Cost: from £48.

While the base cost of postage is lower than the amount charged to customers, this difference reflects the fact that:
a) VAT at 20% must be added on to the base postage cost in most cases and
b) insurance costs must be factored in.
The difference that can be attributed to insurance costs is calculated on the basis of our annual insurance cost (over £15,000) which is then applied proportionally to the base postage rates. The £501-£3000 order range pays a slightly greater insurance premium on account of the fact that it is these packages that most frequently are lost - low value packages rarely go astray, and we have never yet lost a Fedex packet.

Contrary to what you write, we do not get lower shipping costs just because we are a company rather than an individual. Corporate postal accounts are designed for companies much larger than ours, and the Royal Mail corporate account is simply not an viable option for us.

That said, we do try to pass on savings to our customers. Anyone receiving our email updates will know that we were recently able to pass on a Fedex discount of up to 30% in some cases.

You state that your main gripe was not necessarily the shipping charge, but rather than an expedited service was not used. In fact we use the best available Royal Mail services ('International Tracked and Signed' or 'International Tracked', depending on the receiving country's ability to provide said service). There is no other 'expedited service' we could have used other than Fedex, which our customers are welcome to request, however this is not a service that can be provided at a cost of £25. I cannot comment on why Fedex UK's charges may be higher than those in Germany (part of the reason may be because Fedex UK refuses to accept coins in a letter rather than a box), but I can assure you that they are nowhere near "$10-15 a package (Cited from: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/shipping-from-germany.274642/page-4)"

Contrary to what you may believe therefore, our postage charges are not set at a level designed to create a profit, only at a level intended to cover our costs. I do therefore feel it is rather unfair of you to claim that we are 'greedy' and 'ripping off' our customers. This is absolutely not the case.

Nonetheless I am very pleased that you were willing to give us another chance, and that you were a successful bidder in our most recent E-Sale.

Should you have any further questions please do not hesitate to get in contact with me directly.

All the best,

RB

Director
Roma Numismatics

 

Hi all:

OK, I get lots of stuff sent from Germany. Gorny&Mosch/Kunker/Solidus.....
all are sent with a "neutral" registered letter. No value/description of contents.
All arrive within 2 weeks, safe, secure, no taxes.

 

brassnautilus? ...

=> well, it's kind of a funny story ... but he's moved-out (no forwarding address)

 

Not that funny

 

not really funny ... but a true story (just a wee bit o' CoinTalk history)

Kinda like a fire-drill for the mods

 

At least he went out with a bang!

 

So was Brass "the" fire drill we all heard so much about a few weeks ago? Come to think of it, I hadn't seen him around here of late...

As for me, my most recent purchase from Roma was delivered in good time for a fair price.

 

Actually, I lost several shipments from Germany and paypal doesn't reimburse you as apparently in Germany, you are only required to show that you shipped something with a tracking number. They are not liable for lost shipment and insurance doesn't cover it either, at least, based on what the paypal representative I talked to said. She did give me a one-time reimbursement as it was my first claim...

 

Extra! Extra! This just in.....arrived this morning via our nice postman. Reg. letter from Germany from Gorny&Mosch. Lettter/coin sent on March 26th/arrived my house today 4th April. So, eleven days/ consifering there was the 4 day Easter long weekend. Oh, the coin was a AV Solidus Byzantine Emperor Nicephorus I and his son Stauricus....