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Every credit card shown is accepted WITHOUT
fee. Earn Frequent Flier points
while buying at bargain prices! ALL prices are in weak Ozzie Dollars.
I charge NO nasty, nasty "Buyer's Commission" on stamps
like nearly every "Auction" does.
Postage and Insurance and Shipping Costs:
I do not charge silly prices for 'packing and handling' - just a small nominal cost, if anything, and add that mainly on larger non standard size articles. Sometimes I can spend 20 minutes securely packing a carton, finding the exact correct size sturdy box, and using lots of expensive fibreglass filament strapping tape etc for safety from bursting in transit. In such cases I add $5 or so for my time and messing about! Just completing all the customs and insurance forms for overseas insured parcels takes 5 minutes minimum.
You pay for postage (at the current Australia Post rate) and for the Registered Post fee and insurance of the goods. Insurance for goods up to $A5,000 per single shipment is only $A2.00 per $A100.00 coverage to most countries in the world, or part thereof to most major countries (some "high risk" countries like India/Pakistan/Columbia/Indonesia/Mexico etc are clearly excluded. Sending insured there is a GUARANTEE the items will be stolen or tampered with, pretty much.)
This insurance is added to ALL invoices over $100 unless you specifically advise in writing that you do NOT require this, and that you of course assume all risk for loss or damage in that event. i.e a $A500 domestic order will only cost you $A8 Insurance charge in addition to postage and Registered fee. (Registered mail compensation coverage is only VERY minimal, but being Registered ensures a signature upon arrival.) Remember, mail travels by trucks and are delivered on motor bikes, and trucks get wet when it rains. So does mail in your letterbox.
I have had countless sendings over the decades arrive either still wet, or with mint stamp stuck together inside as they were once wet in transit somewhere. Totally ruined and worthless in many cases. The PO does NOT compensate you in this event as they correctly say the mail was safely and quickly delivered! A Mastercard bill or junk mail getting wet in your letterbox is no big issue, but a set of $800 mint stamps IS! A few $$ to cover transit insurance is inexpensive peace of mind.
The good news is that I ALWAYS use attractive Australian postage stamps, NOT frank or meter labels for the postage and Registered fee component of your order, and have them lightly cancelled at my local post office. Not only do you get the stamp lots you ordered, you get fine used frankings as well - if they are not damaged in transit!
Generally, this light cancelled franking has a retail value around (and sometimes more!) than what you are charged for postage costs. The only exception to using nice stamps on mailings is for small lots sent overseas by Registered Mail.
Australia Post now insists that a pre-paid "Registered" envelope must be used for this, for goods under 500 grams (about 1 pound - i.e. 99% of my overseas sendings!), and insists that stamps CANNOT be used to pre-pay it. Their rules, not mine. A small size (130 x 240mm) pre-paid envelope that covers most stamp sendings is $A12 and the far larger one (353 x 250 mm) is $A20 - or about $US13. So the cost is very nominal really. 500 grams allows me to enclose a small collection on leaves or Hagners etc, and the cost to mail such a lot from Europe or USA is a LOT higher than $US13 in my experience!
Any overseas sending heavier than 500g MUST be sent by Insured Post which costs $A8 over actual postage costs for initial $A100 covered. I use nice stamps for this postage cost and the $8 fee, which offers a nominal cover to $A100. The $A2/$100 insurance is additional to this, based on value of the shipment, this being a separate cover to the PO cost. I have found that mailing goods marked like: "value $1,000" on the outside often causes the recipients hassles, delays and costs upon entry re GST/VAT/import duties and taxes etc. Not to mention it can make the article a prime target for theft or tampering en-route as it looks "tempting" to some postal staff.
If I mark parcel "Book, printed matter" (which of course all stamp albums truly and honestly ARE!) and insure it for a nominal $A100 ($US70) my long experience shows that the packet arrives quickly, without incident, and in 99% of cases no duties/taxes/VAT/GST/HST/MOMS etc are added or collected. If you wish I will enclose no invoice in with the goods - it makes no difference to me. So on a $A600 parcel if I send PO insured for $A100, you still need to sign for it at your end, hence it is quite safe, and usually a low value packet like that passes without comment via foreign Customs Bureaux etc.
If I cover the other $A500 by private insurance, you can sleep easily knowing you are covered for loss or theft, and the extra insurance cost is only $A10. Countries like United Kingdom with a 17.5% VAT will charge you $A105 VAT if I were to mark parcel as $A600 value, and they probably add a collection/processing fee as well. And if Australian customs are any guide, they will hold up your parcel for a week in the bureaucratic process!
I can mail things of low value - but which weigh over 500 grams - like Gibbons catalogues etc and of only nominal value via un-insured post if asked specifically, and assuming that you of course assume 100% to all risk for loss or damage in that event. To countries like USA, Canada, NZ, GB and most of Western Europe etc, these are generally delivered without incident, and have been for 25 years.
P.S. A note about e-mail. To enable me to quote you on postage costs, I need to know where in the world you are! I often cannot tell from your e-mail message. You need to tell me the geographical address: i.e., Seattle, USA or Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, etc.
Speed of dispatch - - or LACK of it!
Dealing with Glen Stephens is not as fast as with amazon.com or Barnes and Noble. It is several times slower. Heck, often several WEEKS slower.
And that is how it has always been, and that is how it
always WILL be i have little doubt.
I work for myself. No wife, no kids, no assistance or staff. Things happen at my own pace. And I am away from the office for a few months a year on vacation as well. I know my dear friends in North America are used to ordering something on Monday and having it delivered Fedex to Moose Jaw Iowa by Wednesday am. Great - but you will NEVER get that service from ME!
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GLEN $TEPHEN$ Full Time Stamp Dealer in Australia for over 25 years.
Life Member - American Stamp
Dealers' Association. (New York)
Also Member - Philatelic Traders' Society. (London) ANDA. (Melbourne) American Philatelic Society, etc
"Lothlórien," No. 4 The
Tor Walk, CASTLECRAG (Sydney), N.S.W. 2068 |
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E-mail me at glen@glenstephens.com -
Every credit card shown is
accepted WITHOUT fee.
Earn Frequent Flier points while buying at bargain prices!
ALL prices are in weak Ozzie Dollars. I charge NO nasty, nasty
"Buyer's Commission" on stamps like nearly every "Auction" does.
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