Canada shipping?

Hey i'm new here.
been lurking at this forum for about two weeks.

I think i've settled on buying an infinity ultra or an arc aaa

Can anyone give me information on buying from someone who ships to Canada without ridiculous border fees? Since i'm a student, I don't have much $$, what would be the cheapest for me?

Thx!!

Vicomptel is pretty good for the Arcs. They ship by Post, so there are no huge brokerage fees (maybe $5 +GST if you're unlucky).

Perhaps if you asked nicely, they might even be willing to under-declare the value (under ~$12 US is duty and GST exempt)

Thanks mekki for the info!
I wish cross-border shipping were easier though

I can highly recommend Meridian Tactical. I recently purchased an Inova X5 from Chris. It was at my door in 5 business days, and I only paid the exchange rate...no taxes duties...$10.95 shipping! Great service.

Meridian Tactical

Get the sender to send it air mail, its faster, costs a little more but if you put value<$100 it bypasses border fees /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif (The cutoff is $100 using airmail as opposed to $20)Thats probably how bluewater got his so quickly and cheaply.

Brokerage fees, tax, tax on the brokerage fees!!!, etc. will turn a $25 dollar purchase into a $50 dollar purchase. You really get nailed on small purchases.
Another option I suppose is if you had a family member or good friend mail it to you, or if you lived close to the border and don't have a criminal record pick it up!

RANT: What the heck was free trade supposed to do anyhow- take all the manufacturing jobs to Mexico (50 cents an hour and a tortilla lunch). Buy American/Canadian whenever you can brothers!

PocketLights.com ships to Canada via Airmail. We also take special shipping requests to help customers save on import duties.

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ott said:
Get the sender to send it air mail, its faster, costs a little more but if you put value<$100 it bypasses border fees /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif (The cutoff is $100 using airmail as opposed to $20)Thats probably how bluewater got his so quickly and cheaply.


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Wow! I've never heard of this. Do you have a link?

I can say pretty confidently that this is not true. The limit is $CAD 20 for no duty/tax/etc. Above this gets GST, PST, duty/customs and a handling fee. Surface and Air are the same in this regard - no difference. There is no separate rate for air.

$CAD 60 for gifts, each declared individually, sent from an individual to another individual. Of course no evidence of a sales transaction can be present.

Fedex and UPS will charge their own brokerage/handling fee if the declared value of the package is over $CAD 20, regardless of the nature of the contents (ie: gift, etc.) These brokerage fees can be huge. So don't send items to Canada using UPS or Fedex.

All of this boils down quite simply - send to Canada via USPS. (I personally prefer USPS Global Priority Mail with their two fixed-price envelopes $US 4 and $US 7 for small and large respectively). Ensure that your items' values are declared as $US 12 or less. No hassle, no problems.

Any declared values above this will be subject to the treatment described above - no difference between surface and air.

Thank you CCRA. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

A.

I've got a couple of old ghetto blasters coming from Canada (some stuff I got off ebay last week), I sure hope I don't get stung for more fees or customs charges when they get here. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

I've sent small packets of LEDs to Canada and didn't have to pay extra, but I've never sent $100+ packages to anyone there, so I'm afraid I have no experience in this matter. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Geez, don't worry about Canadian-origin shipments to the USA. You guys have it good - I'm pretty sure the exemption limit is $US 200. It's the Canadians who get the raw end of the deal. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

A.

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ab said:
Geez, don't worry about Canadian-origin shipments to the USA. You guys have it good - I'm pretty sure the exemption limit is $US 200. It's the Canadians who get the raw end of the deal. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

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Oh oh, I'm screwed then. I just sent $402.75 to someone in Ontario Canada for a JVC RC-M80JW ghetto blaster - guess I better email them and have them put $199.00 in the value box and have them mark the "cadeau" box on the green thing you need to put on the shipment. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/blush.gif
(The other one is a lot less than $200.00, so I don't need to email them!)