my first purchase from Gainesville, having purchased previously (in USA anyway) only from the market leader. In general 1. What is better at Gainsville? - SELECTION: selection of rare or at least oddball coins (I tired quickly of common coins). The coins I bought were either unavailable elsewhere or cheaper (only pre shipping?) at Gainesville. - VALUE: Very low premium: spot price purchase day (hour I don't recall) = &14.80-$15 pre-ship price per ounce for order of 5 coins = $15.15 = a low premium. However, *everybody* has sales. And this was a sale. - BUY BACK: They offered to buy back at spot when I asked after purchase. Not tested! PAYMENT: Accepted my Asian bank in Asia VISA credit card (FOR DEPOSIT ONLY) even though the billing address and shipping address do not match). 2. What is worse at Gainsville? - SERVICE: slow speed of order fulfillment. THREE WEEKS for complicated order (my fault) purchase #2 (if you want the abbreviated report on purchase #1, ask)... 1. Purchased online 7/19/15 22:00 2. Order processed 7/20 time unknown 3. MO payment posted 7/20 (Monday) afternoon 4. 7/24 Notified by GC, they will not combine orders 5. Additional payment, cash posted 7/24 (Friday) 6. payment (first obviously) received 7/24 7. invoiced 7/31/15 8. shipped 8/7 9. received in California 8/10 (in 3 days by Priority Mail '2-day' delivery) - PAYMENT: bank card deposit (5%) required for money order purchase. Have they been badly burned with cancelled orders? - SHIPPING FEES: no free shipping unlike market leader 3. What is the same? - SHIPPING: unwillingness, when paid by bank card to ship to an address that is different from billing address. This is a constant problem with my VISA debit card from my Canadian bank in Canada. - POSTAGE: Not transparent, no postage stamps so no idea how much if shipping fee is actual postage 4. What might be the same (unknown)? FULFILL ORDER AT PRICE FALL?: Odd or just co-incidence? Nothing was shipped until there was upward price movement in Ag, after a multi-week slump - SHIPPING: unwillingness to combine shipments to save on shipping fee. The two distinct purchases (different products, purchased on different days) arrived together, two separate packages, on the same day, when logistically they could have been combined and saved me at 8-11bucks. I presumed all would be OK but I was contacted to top up the shipping price as 'for insurance reasons' their policies forbid combining. I just ordered a different product (not precious metals) from a different company and they had no problem combining orders. - ACCOUNTING: Order numbers did not match mine. Hidden person, only given name. It always bugs me when sellers, even fellow men, need to know my family name but do not divulge theirs. Conclusion: Will I order from Gainesville again? Only for high-end rare coins, probably not for semi-numismatics or bullion (unless a large order).
Gainesville Coins are great, and are only 10 km's from my house. Can't beat the selection, and I've sold their coins back to them, no problems at all.
