Stacks Bowers and Heritage Auctions

[AdamDutton]

Hi All,  

I'm curious to learn if any of you have previously made purchases from Stacks Bowers or Heritage Auctions. If you have, did you encounter any import fees as I have always been reluctant buying from America. 

[ChrisSilver]

Moved to the General Precious Metals section as it is question.

The 'info' tag, as outlined in the QuickStart guide to trading is for moderator use for pinned information topics in the trade section. We do not to eventually get a fix in place to stop users from accidentally being able to use that, in the mean time sorry for any confusion  

[SeverinDigsSovereigns]

I think if you paid any import VAT it's charged at 5% not 19% for antiques and items of numismatic interests. Also if it's more than .900 gold, have been used as official currency in place of issue,and below certain price threshold regarding to the spot, it's classified as investment gold and exempt from VAT. However, it is likely they will be intercepted at the customs and you'll need to state that your coins satisfy these criteria for them to be released

[shawy2510]

I tend to find I have to call customs when they arrive due to incorrect vat levels. I have paid 20% on silver from US & Europe. Gold tends to be 5% but can be 20% for you to then explain what you ordered & proof of receipts etc. Usually no issues just can be a delay in getting the coins delivered.

Numismatic gold is tricky because as mentioned above if its been used as currency it should be 0% but if its value is bullion. A numismatic coin doesn't really fall into the category but I have often used this way to pay 0%

[CollectForFun]

My experience with Heritage Auctions is that their shipping rate to Europe was quite high - almost $100 for neither too heavy nor too valuable lot, although they do offer also slightly more favourable rate if the delivery goes through their Dutch branch. But that would probably not make sense for UK buyers anyway as the goods would then have to go through the customs twice.

The bigger argument against buying from them for me is that those Americans or whoever bids with them seem to be willing to pay crazy prices for coins. Don't know how about you, but coins that I put on my tracking list mostly go well above my limits of what I would consider a fair deal...