Coin shipping experiences

[Alan Glasser]

Hello everybody.

Since finding WOC a couple of years back, I have met some awfully nice people, received much help, enjoyed many back and forth discussions and landed several needed coins for my collection. Thanks to all.

A bit of a "bug-a-boo" though has been shipping trade coins to WOC friends from my home in the U.S. to other countries. I have had success sending coins to France, England, New Zealand, Argentina (though the first shipment was lost) and unfortunate results sending things to India and Pakistan. They never arrived there. Anyway, today I received a shipment back in the mail on its way to a collector friend in France to whom I had successfully sent coins before. The contents of this latest parcel were not of value, just 4 minor Mexican coins but the returned envelope said that a customs declaration was necessary as well as about $7 in postage. Would anyone know of any new regulations when shipping a few coins in regular mail from the U.S.? This is rather frustrating as I enjoy trading and have met some really great fellow collectors in the process. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Many thanks.   Alan

[capnbirdseye]

I did notice a few days ago that US sellers on Ebay .com said they were forced to hike up postal charges due to some new regulations,  looking at a few listings with postage to UK at around  $17 for a couple of coins is a bit of a shocker  not sure if this was Ebays new rules or US post rules

[akona20]

I am expecting one coin from the USA at present but note the postage was the usual very cheap (comparartively so) for postge fro the US.

I am also bidding on another coin from the same seller for destructive testing so it will be interesting to see what happens.

All packages here whether of one coin or more that are not simply letters require a Customs Declaration to be completed. I am not sure why the simple declaration that the goods are not unsafe for postage does not suffice and it should be noted that generally all parcels are inspected on arrival here. The only country I have had problems with receiving goods has been America strangely enough and in the recent year the only place I have lost a package is to Bangladesh.

Customs declaration forms make it rather easy for goods to be stolen while in transit.

[Alan Glasser]

Hmmmm...very interesting replies. Well, I don't quite know what to do. I promised I would send the coins to my friend in France, but I fear having them returned again. Unfortunately, we have a rather "unusual" mailman and he seems to take great pleasure in writing me little notes on my goofed up letters. (I don't do it often!!) I weighed the letter going to France and attached $2.45 cents postage on it...about 30 cents more than required for overseas e-mail to France for that weight. The $2 stamp I used was old but unused but it wouldn't stick to the envelope so I glued it on. I got a note saying he (mailman) didn't like glued stamps... along with a customs declaration form.

I never knew
you couldn't use glue
if the stamp wasn't new
and a lick wouldn't do! 

I do know that the U.S. Postal Service (while excellent!!!) is in deep financial trouble and tried to cancel Saturday delivery recently. Congress said NO WAY...so maybe no glued stamps is a small new way to increase revenue?  Maybe overseas letters have gone up too?  Alan   

[Prosit]

I have mailed to Canada, Great Britain, Scotland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Austria, Germany, Latvia, Russia, Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Uruguay. I did mail a single token to India but the package looked like a letter and it did arrive.

Packages I sent that got lost have been one to Great Britain.
Packages that got lost coming to me from Canada, Germany and the Netherlands.
I did get one from Italy that took two months and one that went to Brazil from Florida but it came to Texas eventually. Never understood that route.

I am sure I have lost other packages but those come to mind.
Every package I sent to Portgual was intercepted by Customs and I had to mail detailed lists and values and my friend there wound up paying duty. That was the end of those trades after 4 times.

Most of the coins I trade aren't worth much...postage going up will sure put a crimp in that activity.
Dale

[Abhay]

Hello everybody.

Since finding WOC a couple of years back, I have met some awfully nice people, received much help, enjoyed many back and forth discussions and landed several needed coins for my collection. Thanks to all.

A bit of a "bug-a-boo" though has been shipping trade coins to WOC friends from my home in the U.S. to other countries. I have had success sending coins to France, England, New Zealand, Argentina (though the first shipment was lost) and unfortunate results sending things to India and Pakistan. They never arrived there. Anyway, today I received a shipment back in the mail on its way to a collector friend in France to whom I had successfully sent coins before. The contents of this latest parcel were not of value, just 4 minor Mexican coins but the returned envelope said that a customs declaration was necessary as well as about $7 in postage. Would anyone know of any new regulations when shipping a few coins in regular mail from the U.S.? This is rather frustrating as I enjoy trading and have met some really great fellow collectors in the process. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Many thanks.   Alan

I fully agree with you, regarding shipping coins to India. The problem lies with the Indian Postal Department, where, it seems, that only requirement to qualify for a post, is that you should be a thieve.

No amount of complaints have helped. I have lost many coins, stamps and currency notes to the thieves of India Post. Most of them were rather common and not very significant. But I lost this medal, which was very unique and invaluable, as I have not seen this in the past, nor hope to see it in future. It was send from UK by Registered Post with Signature due, but it never arrived.

Abhay

[Figleaf]

One does not need to be a genius to work in a postal sorting centre.

When my daughter was a student, she got a job in a postal sorting centre in Amsterdam. After a week, she was made shift supervisor (!), since she was the only one who could understand and read enough Dutch to fix minor glitches in the machines. Among other things, she found that the (completely disinterested and unmotivated) people working there would throw any piece of mail that caused a machine to stop in the waste bin. She bravely served for the time contracted and vowed she never wanted to go there again. Somehow, I don't think things have improved since. 

Peter

[FosseWay]

Dale: You have successfully mailed coins to Sweden, too! 

Touch wood, but I have never failed to receive a package of coins that I was expecting, either from a fellow collector or from eBay/Tradera/dealers. The most inexplicable delay was recently with a package that took longer to get from Germany to Sweden than it would have if I'd personally walked there and got it, but nevertheless it got here.

I'm always a bit nervous about sending coins outside the EU, not because of the risk of theft but because different jurisdictions have all sorts of different customs regulations regarding historic/potentially valuable/silver items. I don't possess any coins that are of the kind of historic significance or monetary value that would generally interest a customs department, and still less do I have any spares of such that I would be sending as swaps. But the potential problem is that any given customs official who happens to be tasked with assessing my parcel may not have much/any numismatic knowledge, and for such people on a tight schedule it may just be a case of "coins = valuable", and all the delay and bureaucracy that stems from that. That said, I've sent and received coins from outside the EU several times, mainly to/from the US, without problems.

[Prosit]

How did I forget that? As I recall it was problem free. I don't recall it costing more but it seems it is expensive to send from within Sweden.

I have swapped coins for a long time and no doubt I have forgotten many others as well.
I do have stuff go missing both ways but not often. I now recall a few lost to me coming from within the US.

I also remember ordering stamps from the US Postal Service through their catalog and not getting them. They didn't know what happened    and didn't make good on it. That was the last time I did that.

The two that I remeber the best were sent or to be recieved around Christmas. Weather there is a connection of not I try to avoid that time period. There are a LOT of temps utilized then.

Dale

Dale: You have successfully mailed coins to Sweden, too! 

[FosseWay]

How did I forget that? As I recall it was problem free. I don't recall it costing more but it seems it is expensive to send from within Sweden.

Yes, it was problem free in both directions as far as I was concerned. I would imagine it costs the same to send from the US to any EU country, so it makes no difference to the sender or USPS. But there are huge differences in postage costs, both internal, within the EU and world, between different EU countries. The UK used to be one of the cheapest but has recently hiked its prices phenomenally. Sweden is expensive, which can perhaps be explained by the need to pay for a universal internal postal service covering an enormous country (by European standards) with a very thin population. It costs me 6 kronor to send a letter to someone in a hunting hut in the back of beyond in Lappland, 2000 km away and nowhere near any railways or major roads, just as it costs me 6 kronor to send a letter to the other side of my home city. The cost of the former has to be subsidised in some way, and part of that is through increasing general postage costs.

[paisepagal]

Speaking from the other side of the ....ahem... Side of the post office's wrath , my experience has actually been nearly universally excellent after a few hundred packages and over 13 yrs now.

-I've been outright cheated once by a person from the US.
-once a package returned all the way from Italy because the Italian authorities could not decide on a commercial value. That's when I started including a letter
-two packages from Germany were stolen, I got empty envelopes... One was at the time of the Iceland volcanic situation . The package was stuck in Luxembourg for 3 weeks and I feel that's where the pilfering took place. The 2nd one was a heavy package which I cannot say was necessarily stolen either in Germany or India.
-every package I've sent so far has reached it's destination with contents in place ! I send ny registered airmail only... Food for thought 

[Prosit]

For a small package that can't be classified as a letter the minimun I have found for me to send out of the States is just under $10. The last registered package I sent cost me an additional $19 give or take (I forget the exact amount).  So $30 to send registered.

If send small  amouts of coins (as I often do) it is far better for me to take the chance on an outright loss than it is to register it.  Sending $10 worth of coins for $10 postage while not plesant is something I can justify mentally. Sending that same $10 worth of coins for $30 is not.

A big part of a trade for me is the experience and getting to meet and talk with people from places I will not likely vist. So a strict look at purely economics of a small trade; it is obviously not worth it. I get more out of it than the economics might suggest.

Dale

.......-every package I've sent so far has reached it's destination with contents in place ! I send ny registered airmail only... Food for thought 

[paisepagal]

For a small package that can't be classified as a letter the minimun I have found for me to send out of the States is just under $10. The last registered package I sent cost me an additional $19 give or take (I forget the exact amount).  So $30 to send registered.

If send small  amouts of coins (as I often do) it is far better for me to take the chance on an outright loss than it is to register it.  Sending $10 worth of coins for $10 postage while not plesant is something I can justify mentally. Sending that same $10 worth of coins for $30 is not.

A big part of a trade for me is the experience and getting to meet and talk with people from places I will not likely vist. So a strict look at purely economics of a small trade; it is obviously not worth it. I get more out of it than the economics might suggest.

Dale

Well yes that's true... Given that the highest denomination here is Rs10, it's a near guarantee that the postage will always exceed the face value of coins by the widest of margins... 3x as much usually. When looking at it economically, I compare to how expensive it is to buy the same thing here; and surprise surprise... It turns out it is indeed cheaper to exchange .... I don't even want to get started on all the wonderful experiences and contacts that come off swapping.... That package that fosseway talks about from Germany has an Indian connection I'm guessing 

[Prosit]

I agree.

To me it is a balancing act. I want to trade as I enjoy the experience and of course the coins. But I have to balance how much content value I am willing to risk with the postage cost being as low as I can reasonable make it and still make it worth doing.

With higher value packages of course the postal costs get to be smaller percents and less of a consideration.
With un-known traders I am very reluctant to send more than a minimum amount the first couple trades.

Most expensive package I sever sent had $500 woth of coin value but I had traded with that trader for years.
Least expensive packages I have sent might have a small pile of US Quarters and pocket type change in it.

I am not likely to quit trading due to cost of postage but the packages might have to change in content to keep it interesting and worth while for me.

Dale

Well yes that's true... Given that the highest denomination here is Rs10, it's a near guarantee that the postage will always exceed the face value of coins by the widest of margins... 3x as much usually. When looking at it economically, I compare to how expensive it is to buy the same thing here; and surprise surprise... It turns out it is indeed cheaper to exchange .... I don't even want to get started on all the wonderful experiences and contacts that come off swapping.... That package that fosseway talks about from Germany has an Indian connection I'm guessing 

[Alan Glasser]

Hello Guys,

I just resent the package that started this thread (flat envelope really) to France. This time, nothing changed except I used the address of the Public Library in my town (my wife is the director) as the return address. Our mailman, (age 55 and older community) is not known for being pleasant!!!! but I expect he has a good number of outgoing mail items from our community central mailboxes that may have errors in postage (or heaven forbid...GLUED STAMPS!!!  HORRORS!!!) from some of the elderly residents. I mailed the letter from the P.O. so our local mailman won't have to deal with it.  We'll see if the letter is again returned which would possibly indicate some sort of rule or rate change. I DID weigh the letter and added additional postage than the required amount for a 1.3 ounce letter to France from the U.S.. The P.O. at their online site even has an option for pricing envelopes with stiff contents so I selected that option to account to determine pricing for shipping and for the wrapping I sent the coins in.  Fingers crossed.

Alan