Anyone ever hear of Jean Else?

[the_Thing ®]

Dealer? Aucitioneer?

[JamminJ]

Jean Elsen ia an autioner in Belgium who also has some fixed price offereings, especially after their auctions.

 

Sign up on line to receive catalogs, they do a nice job on those. They offer a wide selection of ancient, medieval and world coins including seldom seen issues.

 

I've bought two coins from them - both Austrian thalers. Customer service is so-so, ordering with a credit card is a multi step process requiring an image of the card to be faxed to them. They also agreed to sell me some coins which were not in inventory.

 

Prices are usually a bit high although much of that can be blamed on the Euro conversion rate these days. 18% buyer fee on auctions.

 

General advise: bid or buy only if your sure you will really like the coins. Both of the ones I bought I liked but wish I paid a bit less for.

 

-JamminJ

[the_Thing ®]

Thanks JJ. That coin I pictured in another thead (the one I didn't think looked right), from an ebay auction, originally came from one of Jean Else's auctions.

[JamminJ]

Thanks JJ. That coin I pictured in another thead (the one I didn't think looked right), from an ebay auction, originally came from one of Jean Else's auctions.

 

I just figured that out in the other thread! Elsen has online achives for at least the last few auctions, hopefully you can find the coin and it's selling price.

 

Elsen's opeining bid is 80% of the estimate plus the 18% buyer's fee. If they don't sell the coins are offered in fixed price format afterwards at 80% of the estimate with no buyer's fee. Therefore the seller likely paid at least 120 euros for the coin.

 

-JamminJ

[gmarguli]

My experience is the same as James.

 

The prices are not cheap and a little shopping around could save you money.

 

Their customer service is so-so at best. An order of, I believe, 6 coins resulted in one being delivered to me. The others were previously sold. A simple email would have been appreciated to let me know that only one of the six coins were available. I didn't find out until the package arrived.

 

Something rather odd, when you win an auction lot, they will send you an invoice telling you they are going to bill your credit card. This invoice arrives quite a while after the end of the auction. Then some time later you get the coin. Why not just ship the coin at the same time and note the credit card has been billed is beyond me.

 

Be very careful with all the fees. If you buy something from them in auction note the 18% buyers fee + the shipping fee + the 3.5% credit card fee + the lousy conversion rate your credit card company will give you for paying in Euros + the transaction fee. It all adds up really fast.

 

Their pictures are fairly accurate, but they are not to scale. A tiny coin can look like a taler.

 

Overall, I will buy from them again, but I think I'll have to REALLY like the coin before I buy it.