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1949threepence

Steep slabbing premiums

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I wouldn't dispute that they are all very nice coins. Top drawer in fact.

But they are an object lesson in up to 100% + premium applied to choice items, merely by virtue of the fact they are slabbed.   

Not worth it. 

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That particular mob have had stupid prices for years.

I'm not sure this is down to slabbing....greed has more to do with it, I feel.....

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Silly prices, but the rationale for putting on a higher price is that you can always come down, but never put the price up. eBay's a difficult one to suss psychologically. Do you just do a BIN at 15% over what you want, or do you put a higher price on it and make the buyer feel better for getting a discount. But then you find that some people won't make a best offer because they are afraid of paying more than they need to, or others will only ever make a derisory offer and presumably are happy with the occasional trophy, whilst most of the time the vendor recognises that valuations are poles apart and either declines or ignores the offer.

To go back to the original post, a 100% premium is not outrageous when compared to the typical offer at 50-60% of your asking price, irrespective of whether the BIN is a fair price or not. Make an offer at 50% of the listing price and see what happens, assuming that is reasonable.

Edited by Rob
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23 minutes ago, Rob said:

Silly prices, but the rationale for putting on a higher price is that you can always come down, but never put the price up. eBay's a difficult one to suss psychologically. Do you just do a BIN at 15% over what you want, or do you put a higher price on it and make the buyer feel better for getting a discount. But then you find that some people won't make a best offer because they are afraid of paying more than they need to, or others will only ever make a derisory offer and presumably are happy with the occasional trophy, whilst most of the time the vendor recognises that valuations are poles apart and either declines or ignores the offer.

To go back to the original post, a 100% premium is not outrageous when compared to the typical offer at 50-60% of your asking price, irrespective of whether the BIN is a fair price or not. Make an offer at 50% of the listing price and see what happens, assuming that is reasonable.

Well yes, except there's no provision for a best offer on any of those coins. It's take it or leave it.

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I think on Ebay these days you can make an offer even if the seller has not included "or best offer". If you go to "contact seller" and push through to sending a message, you can make an offer there. Ebay seems to encourage it! Sometimes (I can't quite work out which sequence of events brings it up) a button for "make an offer" appears.

That seller is in the US and prices there consistently seem much higher than in the UK, even for GB coins, so I would not be surprised if they get 2/3 of the asking price on most of those. As Rob says, it is much easier to drop your price if you have over-cooked it than ask for more once the buyer has clicked buy-it-now!

 

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1 hour ago, Paddy said:

I think on Ebay these days you can make an offer even if the seller has not included "or best offer". If you go to "contact seller" and push through to sending a message, you can make an offer there. Ebay seems to encourage it! Sometimes (I can't quite work out which sequence of events brings it up) a button for "make an offer" appears.

That seller is in the US and prices there consistently seem much higher than in the UK, even for GB coins, so I would not be surprised if they get 2/3 of the asking price on most of those. As Rob says, it is much easier to drop your price if you have over-cooked it than ask for more once the buyer has clicked buy-it-now!

 

Hmm, you might be right there Paddy. Although I've never tried it before, I might make an offer on one of the coins which does look quite nice. 

Will keep this thread posted on developments. 

ETA: with that said, I do still think that a not inconsiderable premium is added for slabbing. If it was the bare coin I'm sure they wouldn't dare ask as much as they do. 

 

Edited by 1949threepence

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3 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

Hmm, you might be right there Paddy. Although I've never tried it before, I might make an offer on one of the coins which does look quite nice. 

Will keep this thread posted on developments. 

ETA: with that said, I do still think that a not inconsiderable premium is added for slabbing. If it was the bare coin I'm sure they wouldn't dare ask as much as they do. 

 

That's because slabbing has effectively commoditised the product, just like things have a recommended retail price in the shops

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Not all outrageous - there's an AU 1907 shilling for £75, and an UNC 1910 halfcrown for less than it's been in Spink for years.

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On 11/12/2020 at 9:26 AM, Paddy said:

I think on Ebay these days you can make an offer even if the seller has not included "or best offer". If you go to "contact seller" and push through to sending a message, you can make an offer there. Ebay seems to encourage it! Sometimes (I can't quite work out which sequence of events brings it up) a button for "make an offer" appears.

That seller is in the US and prices there consistently seem much higher than in the UK, even for GB coins, so I would not be surprised if they get 2/3 of the asking price on most of those. As Rob says, it is much easier to drop your price if you have over-cooked it than ask for more once the buyer has clicked buy-it-now!

 

 

On 11/12/2020 at 11:12 AM, 1949threepence said:

Hmm, you might be right there Paddy. Although I've never tried it before, I might make an offer on one of the coins which does look quite nice. 

Will keep this thread posted on developments. 

ETA: with that said, I do still think that a not inconsiderable premium is added for slabbing. If it was the bare coin I'm sure they wouldn't dare ask as much as they do. 

 

Looks like you were right, Paddy. Thanks for the tip.

I made an offer of $300 on this coin

The seller made a counter offer of $345, which I accepted. Met me in the middle. It's about in line with what a such a coin would trade at in the UK, and it's certainly a lot better than the current small date 1857 I've got which shows signs of old cleaning. 

At the original price it was one of their better priced coins. 

That'll have to be the last coin I buy this year, given what I've spent recently. Just hope it manages to reach here OK.

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On 11/12/2020 at 9:26 AM, Paddy said:

I think on Ebay these days you can make an offer even if the seller has not included "or best offer". If you go to "contact seller" and push through to sending a message, you can make an offer there. Ebay seems to encourage it! Sometimes (I can't quite work out which sequence of events brings it up) a button for "make an offer" appears.

That seller is in the US and prices there consistently seem much higher than in the UK, even for GB coins, so I would not be surprised if they get 2/3 of the asking price on most of those. As Rob says, it is much easier to drop your price if you have over-cooked it than ask for more once the buyer has clicked buy-it-now!

 

It comes up when you click on "contact seller". You get the following range of queries:-

 Details about the item (2)

Postage (6)

Combined postage (0)

Make an offer (1)

Pay for the item (2)

Returns (1)

Other (1)

If you then click on "make an offer", you get asked if you want to look for an "answer" - which then comes up with:- 

Make an offer: We found 1 answer(s)

How do I make an offer?

The seller hasn't enabled offers for this item. See if they'll consider — send a message with your best price.

Although you could of course ignore the looking for an answer bit, and just go straight into sending a message to the seller.

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16 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

Just hope it manages to reach here OK.

If it comes by USPS, remember my experience. I rang Parcel Force yesterday and actually spoke to a human who said "you should have had 2 letters from us". Well, I didn't and they didn't even apologise. Simply confirmed that it had been returned to the US.

Customer Service ? - it's gone the way of the Dodo.

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6 minutes ago, secret santa said:

If it comes by USPS, remember my experience. I rang Parcel Force yesterday and actually spoke to a human who said "you should have had 2 letters from us". Well, I didn't and they didn't even apologise. Simply confirmed that it had been returned to the US.

Customer Service ? - it's gone the way of the Dodo.

Yep, I know when I called RM about the coin that was delivered to another address, and then another tracked which was shoved through the door, the response I received was factual, but there was no attempt at an apology. In fact the agents I spoke to were quite offhand, I thought. Piss poor customer service. 

It is coming USPS, and it has got a tracking No. I will be keeping a very close day by day eye on it, and checking the parcelforce website as soon as it is shown as arriving in London. Hopefully it will make it that far.       

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52 minutes ago, 1949threepence said:

parcelforce website

Parcelforce phone number is 0344 800 4466 in case you need it.

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5 minutes ago, secret santa said:

Parcelforce phone number is 0344 800 4466 in case you need it.

Thanks Richard.

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My friend, who is very wealthy, asked his son what he wanted for his birthday,

and his son told him he wanted a cowboy outfit, so my friend bought him Hermes.....

Edited by blakeyboy
speling
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23 hours ago, secret santa said:

If it comes by USPS, remember my experience. I rang Parcel Force yesterday and actually spoke to a human who said "you should have had 2 letters from us". Well, I didn't and they didn't even apologise. Simply confirmed that it had been returned to the US.

Customer Service ? - it's gone the way of the Dodo.

 

22 hours ago, 1949threepence said:

Yep, I know when I called RM about the coin that was delivered to another address, and then another tracked which was shoved through the door, the response I received was factual, but there was no attempt at an apology. In fact the agents I spoke to were quite offhand, I thought. Piss poor customer service. 

It is coming USPS, and it has got a tracking No. I will be keeping a very close day by day eye on it, and checking the parcelforce website as soon as it is shown as arriving in London. Hopefully it will make it that far.       

Had a few thoughts about this issue, and the one thing I do find slightly interesting is that when I incurred customs charges last year, the item came via USPS and then Royal Mail (as opposed to Parcelforce). At that point I received an e mail from Royal Mail (which see) informing me that an item was on its way and that Customs Charges were likely. Subsequently I received a letter from the local delivery office informing me that I had a package and the amount of customs duty to pay - which at the time I did at the collection point by card payment. The package had both my mobile No and e mail address on the outside - hence the earlier e mail from RM. Why wasn't the second notification via e mail? Why the difference?

The recent delivery from USPS, like yours, came via parcelforce, and I received no such e mail, despite the fact that, as last year, my e mail address was on the outside of the package. Although I did receive a letter, this time from a different delivery office to my local one. 

I might write to Parcelforce asking them to explain why there are different approaches to different packages. After all, if an e mail was a requirement of notification (or one of them, where possible), then one was not received, you've got 'em, as there would be clear proof they hadn't sent one.     

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Royal Mail and Parcelforce are different companies, so their methods of processing orders is likely to be different too - hence the above.

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1 hour ago, Rob said:

Royal Mail and Parcelforce are different companies, so their methods of processing orders is likely to be different too - hence the above.

Indeed, but why should one coin sent USPS be dealt with by RM, and the next, also sent by USPS, be dealt with by Parcelforce?

There's no doubt a perfectly logical explanation, such as a change in procedure agreed between the two 'departments', but it would be interesting to know the exact thinking. Not that it would probably be much more than a bland generic reply completely ignoring the question I asked........but I live in hope.  

They are nominally separate, but given that the two are mentioned on the same website, they obviously work in close tandem. 

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I think its to do with insurance, not 100% sure because my example is the other direction.

Outgoing(international) my Post office dude told me above £200 insurance it will need to go Parcelforce but under £200  it will go royal mail(USPS).

 

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On 11/12/2020 at 4:26 AM, Paddy said:

I think on Ebay these days you can make an offer even if the seller has not included "or best offer". If you go to "contact seller" and push through to sending a message, you can make an offer there. Ebay seems to encourage it! Sometimes (I can't quite work out which sequence of events brings it up) a button for "make an offer" appears.

That seller is in the US and prices there consistently seem much higher than in the UK, even for GB coins, so I would not be surprised if they get 2/3 of the asking price on most of those. As Rob says, it is much easier to drop your price if you have over-cooked it than ask for more once the buyer has clicked buy-it-now!

 

It isn't always the case that prices are higher in the USA. For example, a 1911 penny slabbed NGC and graded MS65RD sold for £250 hammer at BSJ not long ago. I bought a 1911 penny slabbed NGC and graded MS65RB for £109 ($142) from a dealer in the USA.

I have made recent purchases in both the USA and the UK and prices seem to be generally pretty similar. Certainly there are outliers in both countries as a result of auction competition or greedy vendors. Up to us as customers to know what we are willing to pay.

Edited by jaggy

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On 11/15/2020 at 3:49 PM, 1949threepence said:

Indeed, but why should one coin sent USPS be dealt with by RM, and the next, also sent by USPS, be dealt with by Parcelforce?

There's no doubt a perfectly logical explanation, such as a change in procedure agreed between the two 'departments', but it would be interesting to know the exact thinking. Not that it would probably be much more than a bland generic reply completely ignoring the question I asked........but I live in hope.  

They are nominally separate, but given that the two are mentioned on the same website, they obviously work in close tandem. 

Even more interesting is that my latest order from the United States will be diverted to Royal Mail once it arrives. I've been following the item on USPS tracker, which yesterday showed the item at Los Angeles airport (presumably ready for a flight to the UK - although given LA is the West Coast of America, would be a long haul flight) - link

I'm not sure whether the time given on the USPS website (6:32am) is local time, or whether corrected to GMT. I'd think it more probable than not, that it's local time.

But anyway, that was 19th November, today's the 20th, so I decided to put the number in the parcelforce track and trace, and got the message that the item was being dealt with by Royal Mail (see screenshot). I look on the RM track and trace, and see this   

So essentially, still not fully clear as to why one is dealt with by Parcelforce and the other by Royal Mail - UNLESS it has to do with the type of USPS service opted for. This was the cheaper one, although the approximate arrival dates were virtually the same. The last parcelforce one, was the more expensive (didn't get an option), and last year's RM one was also the cheaper tracked USPS version.   

Anyway, whichever, my advice is to check progress every single day, as you just can't rely on people to do their jobs properly.  

parcelforce snip.PNG

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I've not read the entire thread, so this may have been answered, but does one have to pay duty on slabbed coins? It strikes me that they should be treated as "Returned British Goods" and thus free from any taxes or duties.

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'Fraid you do. Anyway, the plastic bit would be an import.

I also think they should be treated as returned goods, but can see it might be difficult to prove they were exported from here, not to mention actually made here in some cases.

Edited by Rob

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1 hour ago, Rob said:

'Fraid you do. Anyway, the plastic bit would be an import.

I also think they should be treated as returned goods, but can see it might be difficult to prove they were exported from here, not to mention actually made here in some cases.

So that may explain why I've been stung twice for customs duty on successive slabbed coins from the USA. Whereas the raw coins I've received from there (co-incidentally or otherwise) have arrived free of duty.

Although how they would know whether the coin was slabbed or not, without opening the envelope, I don't know. The packages have simply said "numismatic item". 

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It's a lottery, as it always has been.

Don't believe all that is written. Coins in plastic or without are are all subject to the same rules. That was just an observation as to why slabbed coins could reasonably still attract import duty even if the 'Made in Britain' bit applied to the contents.

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