Not too sure where to put this question so please forgive me if I have this in the wrong area of this Forum. My question is about postal charges especially those from the USA. I often shop for coins on E-bay and will see a great coin at a great price, but that $3.00 coin will have $24.50 postage attached to it.
Does anyone know why that postage is so high? It is often so much more than the coin is possibly even worth.
Collector of Third Reich coins (1933 - 1946), and Australian coins.
Not swapping at this time.
One of the reasons is that, in order to protect themselves, the seller has decided to used a method of shipping which provides tracking. In the US, the Postal Service charges a very high amount for this service when the destination is outside of the country. I have only used tracking to an overseas destination once or twice. I trade regularly with a member in Australia just paying first class postage, which can be as little as $1.15 (US). This method has been successful. I have also used this for Brazil and Russia with success, however it has taken a long time to arrive. That saying, I have not sent coins of medium or high value without tracking. If a trader wants to take a chance of postal theft, this can be a successful method. As a side note, I have traded with collectors in some other countries (India comes to mind) in which the trader claimed to never to have received the coins I sent but at the same time I never got the coins that they promised me either. So I guess I was dealing with a scammer who had no intension of sending me the coins. I would suggest that you make a contact with a member in the US who would buy your inexpensive item for you and then ship it to you at very low first class method. Also, I have noticed that some Ebay sellers in your country want to charge what I consider a large amount to ship to the US.
Hi Kipsley, This has become a huge worldwide problem on ebay, you have to send everything recorded delivery at big expense, ebay and paypal policy is to refund the buyers payment without question if they claim they have never received item, the only proof you have is recorded delivery.
there are a lot of buyers on ebay that are aware of this and will instantly claim full refund as i have found in the last few years if the item is not sent recorded tracked postage.
once bitten twice shy, i send everything recorded delivery now and its far more expensive than standard postage.
If everyone was honest it would be easy, but sadly this is not the case!.
people talking without speaking, people hearing without listening
Quote: "Kipsley"Not too sure where to put this question so please forgive me if I have this in the wrong area of this Forum. My question is about postal charges especially those from the USA. I often shop for coins on E-bay and will see a great coin at a great price, but that $3.00 coin will have $24.50 postage attached to it.
Does anyone know why that postage is so high? It is often so much more than the coin is possibly even worth.
I met the same nonsens many times, in my opinion it is a trick; they put some attractive coin for a small price and than they want to make a profit on the shipping costs, I think everybody should ignore those sellers.
To send a coin or two, to Europa from usa doesn't need to cost more than 2 or 3 dollar. When you complain
they come with this registerd Global posting-crap or something like that, but you dont get anything for that, if the coin is lost it is lost, and paypal will refund you anyway.
On the other hand I have to say there are a few usa-based sellers who send for free.
I don't know about eBay, but in some other places sellers try to avoid fees with high postages. Price of product may be relatively cheap as you have to pay commission based on it. Then postage is relatively high as they take their share of it.
Usually (I only buy coins on ebay usually) I only buy coins from other Europe. The postal charges are often 0€-7€. When I bought the 4 daler plate coin, the postal charges were 30€.
Quote: "Kipsley"Not too sure where to put this question so please forgive me if I have this in the wrong area of this Forum. My question is about postal charges especially those from the USA. I often shop for coins on E-bay and will see a great coin at a great price, but that $3.00 coin will have $24.50 postage attached to it.
Does anyone know why that postage is so high? It is often so much more than the coin is possibly even worth.
I met the same nonsens many times, in my opinion it is a trick; they put some attractive coin for a small price and than they want to make a profit on the shipping costs, I think everybody should ignore those sellers.
To send a coin or two, to Europa from usa doesn't need to cost more than 2 or 3 dollar. When you complain
they come with this registerd Global posting-crap or something like that, but you dont get anything for that, if the coin is lost it is lost, and paypal will refund you anyway.
On the other hand I have to say there are a few usa-based sellers who send for free.
I have to agree with yvon.
I hardly ever buy from US sellers (unless they offer free shipping) anymore, for precisely this reason. I've also suspected they're trying to recoup their losses (e.g. when you're the only bidder on an auction and you get it for under silver value for example).
Maybe it's not their fault (I can give the benefit of the doubt here), but still, paying 20+ dollars to ship a 10 euro purchase is insane. Even for European sellers I usually choose from dealers with free shipping (or even in person pickup one time).
Here is the link to the U.S. Postal Service price list. After a little research you should be able to determine what a package or letter should cost when mailed from the U.S.A.
The standard package rate to Europe from the US is $22.25 (iirc). So if you ship in a bubble mailer, you will have to pay this price, hence the expensive cost. Shipping in a larger envelope or a regular white envelope is much cheaper, but it's risky. And on ebay where the buyer can just say he never received the item you need proof of where the item went to defend yourself against scammers. So bubble mailers with tracking are usually the best idea.
I currently have seven pending shipments from outside the US on Ebay that have provided me with tracking number: China $3.48 (US shipping), Germany $5.00 (US shipping), France $8.14 (US shipping), Cyprus $2.75 (US shipping) Germany $5.00 (US shipping) Cyprus $2.70 (US shipping) and Russia $6.00 (US shipping). The numbers work well, I have had little or no problems in receiving coins from outside the US. I'm not sure how these countries can offer such low cost tracking when I have to pay $20.00 or more to ship from the US to other countries with tracking.
Quote: "Kipsley"Not too sure where to put this question so please forgive me if I have this in the wrong area of this Forum. My question is about postal charges especially those from the USA. I often shop for coins on E-bay and will see a great coin at a great price, but that $3.00 coin will have $24.50 postage attached to it.
Does anyone know why that postage is so high? It is often so much more than the coin is possibly even worth.
Kipsley, there is a policy change being put into place in the U. S. Postal System, which has the system somewhat in chaos. The new policy says that any mail (regardless of value) that has a Customs form that says Merchandise is automatically a parcel (even if in a white business envelope), and it will cost at least $13.75 to mail it. Some post offices have not adapted to this policy, and still mail that same white envelope for $1.15, if it is under one ounce.
If the envelope contains Merchandise, and it does not have a Customs form, then it may be returned to the sender, and the sender blocked from using the U. S. Postal System! (The local post office has received returned mail and delivered these warnings.)
The Customs forms have limited tracking for international shipments; it usually ends when the item leaves U. S. control. To get full tracking or tracing, you have to pay for Registered Mail or Priority Mail, and the cost is in the $29-$36 range or higher.
In the past, I have avoided having to use Registered Mail by paying for a third party international shipping policy, which covers most countries (the Russian Federation and Mexico are specifically excluded).
We are hoping that someone will wake up and establish at least a "de minimus" value of $20 or so, that is exempt from that ~$12.60 "surcharge".
In my experience, German shipments have resulted in the highest number of claims for non-receipt, followed closely by India. There have been few losses for shipments to Australia.
The accommodation I have always given my customers, is to accumulate auction wins/purchases for at least seven days. Average out the shipping cost over several items.
and the sender blocked from using the U. S. Postal System!
How in the world are they going to do that? With the millions of items they process everyday, they could not possibly identify mail from a "blocked" user. Sounds like a bunch of hot air from our friends at the good old USPS!
Quote: "LargoRich"and the sender blocked from using the U. S. Postal System!
How in the world are they going to do that? With the millions of items they process everyday, they could not possibly identify mail from a "blocked" user. Sounds like a bunch of hot air from our friends at the good old USPS!
They now manually key all the info from the Customs form into their computer system. If you are flagged, it can block your international shipments.
It would be less likely to capture your domestic shipments, although it might block you from purchasing mailing labels. (In the label purchasing process, it does verify whether the physical address exists.)
I have friends in Brazil and Australia who, I send the new issues of the Parks set to as they are released. I just put the two coin between a couple of sheets of copy paper in a white small letter envelope. Stick a $1.15 International Mail stamp on it and just drop it into a mailbox. Always works!
I also only buy from sellers in The Netherlands and Belgium and sometimes GB if the costs are okay, otherwise it's not worth the transaction however much you want that coin.
Luckily there are enough good coin dealers here, and we have a few good websites where people can advertise coins for free.
The standard cost of sending a coin in The Netherlands is either €0.83 up to 20 grams and €1.66 up to 50 grams.
If you want track and trace a package that fits through the letterbox is €4.25 and anything larger that needs to be delivered with a van is €8.10.
Most of the buyers in Holland are happy to pay this postage.
But free postage is of course always better :)
Quote: "Trp"I don't know about eBay, but in some other places sellers try to avoid fees with high postages. Price of product may be relatively cheap as you have to pay commission based on it. Then postage is relatively high as they take their share of it.
This was the case on eBay as well until they started taking a fee for the postage as well as the sell price.
I think these days it's a combination of needing to cover yourself with insurance and tracking and trying to keep a low sell price to entice buyers.
Quote: "Trp"I don't know about eBay, but in some other places sellers try to avoid fees with high postages. Price of product may be relatively cheap as you have to pay commission based on it. Then postage is relatively high as they take their share of it.
This was the case on eBay as well until they started taking a fee for the postage as well as the sell price.
I think these days it's a combination of needing to cover yourself with insurance and tracking and trying to keep a low sell price to entice buyers.
Ebay has a very complicated method for determining their fees on shipping; they have always envied PayPal's ability to charge fees on the total transaction, including all shipping.
Ebay strongly pushes us to include the shipping in the coin cost. To me, this is unfair to the Buyer. If the shipping cost is imbedded in each price, you get no savings from combined shipping. I calculate the shipping separately, and give the Buyer at least two shipping options for international shipping.
