Slowness on ma-shops recently?

Discussion in 'Ancient Coins' started by kirispupis, Jun 22, 2021.

  1. kirispupis

    kirispupis Well-Known Member

    Hello everyone,

    A bit over a week ago, I ordered a coin from Fenzl on ma-shops. This was my first order on that site. I paid for the coin immediately with Paypal, including a rather high IMHO shipping fee of 50 Euros - to which I added a message that I can pay that, but given the price please send the coin via Fedex instead of Deutsche Post.

    So far, I haven't heard a peep from the seller. No "we'll send your coin in x days" mail or even "thank you. We'll get it out soon." I also haven't received any messages of packages coming from either Fedex, DHL, or Deutsche Post. Yesterday, I also sent a mail to ma-shops, asking if they could please check on the seller. Today I left ma-shops a message.

    I must admit that I'm alarmed that I haven't received a single bit of communication from either. My understanding is both ma-shops and Fenzl are quality outfits, but I'm wondering if something happened.

    Several months ago I ordered a coin from France (via Vcoins) during the height of the pandemic. A few days after I placed the order I received an email saying "hey. Thanks for your order. I'm stuck in lockdown but I'll get your coin out when I can." I was fine with that and I received it about a month later.

    This is a coin I'm very excited to have, so I really don't want to aggravate anyone, but just receive some form of ETA on when I'll have the coin.

    Any recommendations on how to proceed? Has anyone else had communications recently either with Fenzl or ma-shops?
     
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  3. Victor_Clark

    Victor_Clark all my best friends are dead Romans Dealer

    Nothing to do with the poor communication from the dealer (for which there is no excuse) but you should have talked with the seller before ordering, not after, about shipping.
     
  4. kirispupis

    kirispupis Well-Known Member

    This is a valid point, but to be honest I was so excited to buy the coin that I just figured I'd take my chances. Yes, the dealer can take my 50 Euros and ship it via Deutsche Post and I'll have to wait 1-3 months to get it, but I used my very best German to beg them not to.

    So, I'm not upset about the shipping. I'd just like some form of response.
     
    sel w likes this.
  5. kirispupis

    kirispupis Well-Known Member

    Just an update. The coin was just shipped. I was extremely excited to buy it (it's an important key to a story I'm working on, and has several important "bonus features"). So, probably nothing to see here. I was probably a bit too jumpy. :)
     
  6. ma-shops

    ma-shops Well-Known Member

    Good to hear your coin is on its way! It would be interesting to hear about the story you are working on...anything you can share with us? Thank you.
     
    tibor likes this.
  7. kirispupis

    kirispupis Well-Known Member

    I can't share the entire story yet, since I don't want to give others ideas and get into bidding wars on the remaining coins. :) I can say that after months of research, I've identified 22 coins necessary to tell the story. With this coin, I now own 11 of them.

    What I love about this particular coin is besides telling part of my story, it has several features that make it extraordinarily interesting IMHO. For fun, I'll give hints if anyone would like to play a simple game to guess the coin.

    1) There's strong speculation that this coin influenced a ruler in the design of an extremely well-known coin.
    2) This is also just speculation, but this coin contains an image of a very important place.
    3) It also depicts animals, and I love animals.
     
    Roman Collector and ma-shops like this.
  8. ma-shops

    ma-shops Well-Known Member

    Intriguing for sure! Good luck with your search...if you haven't already done so, you could consider setting up a customized search on MA-Shops; more info here: https://www.ma-shops.com/shops/help.php?lang=en&id=23
     
    tibor and kirispupis like this.
  9. Mr.Q

    Mr.Q Well-Known Member

    To late, you are going to get what you paid for, cross your fingers. Good luck
     
  10. kirispupis

    kirispupis Well-Known Member

    BTW, just thought I'd mention that I find browsing challenging on ma-shops. The following is how I use vcoins:
    Several times a day I navigate to the site. New ancient coins are on the top, and one click shows me more. Pretty much every ancient coin that comes up on Vcoins I notice.

    On ma-shops, this is a lot more difficult. I have to select "last three days", then "coins:ancient" and "search." Then, one coin is shown per row compared to four in VCoins. The result is I need a lot more time to just browse on ma-shops, which is why I rarely do it.

    This is one reason why I buy a lot more on VCoins. More often I run across something where I say "that's interesting!" vs on ma-shops I only search for particular coins.
     
  11. Bayern

    Bayern Active Member

    I have ordered from both sites, although mostly from ma-shops, as sellers there have a great selection of German states coins. I am learning more about ancient coins as I go, but have a long way til become really knowledgeable, so do not yet have a great many of them- although I do have a decent variety of quality coins. So most purchases there have been the former, so far.
     
  12. Cheech9712

    Cheech9712 Every thing is a guess

    As you should be
     
  13. kirispupis

    kirispupis Well-Known Member

    FWIW, I just purchased another coin yesterday in the story from ma-shops. This one was from Vosper, and it promptly shipped this morning.

    This is another one I'm very excited about. I collect "stories", not coins, so I'm often researching and I uncovered a coin that I was previously unfamiliar with, that perfectly matched the story. Recently, I lost on an auction for a different coin for this part, but this new coin matched 1000% better.

    Of course, when I started searching for the coin, I realized it was rare. CNG had sold only four copies in the last 17 years, the last three years ago. None were in any current or recent auctions. VCoins had nothing, but then ma-shops turned up some results!

    I received sticker shock at first, since the first dealer wanted a lot. But I scrolled down and found another one in similar condition for a third of the price! Not only that, but it seems this copy is rarer than the first, since the web site I typically use for these coins only lists the type, but provides no examples.

    Combined with another part of the story I found on VCoins, and I'm now down to 9 coins left for my story, though two of them I've lost on several times at auction now, and I know are going to eventually cost me. :)
     
    ma-shops and Bayern like this.
  14. ma-shops

    ma-shops Well-Known Member

     
  15. ma-shops

    ma-shops Well-Known Member

    Thank you for your feedback. Here is another way to search for new coins:

    1. Select from search bar pull down menu: "Coins:Ancient"
    2. Select "last three days"
    3. Select "search"

    *If you are on a laptop or PC, you can toggle the view of coins to appear in a list, 3 across, or 4 across, and see as many as 30 coins in one screen

    **On mobile device, you can change the view in: browser settings --> desktop view
     
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