Shipping To Canada

[bibowski]

Ok, just a quick question. I've shipped a LOT of stuff over the years to both Canada and the US, and I've noticed the prices are pretty much the same, as long as it's not a HUGE package. I'm just wondering if it's the same in the US.

Does it really cost anything extra for you to send something to Canada? Every time I buy something from anyone, be it on DP or Ebay, I get dinged for extra shipping charges. I never charge more if I ship across the province, or across the continent.

[nik]

Ok, just a quick question. I've shipped a LOT of stuff over the years to both Canada and the US, and I've noticed the prices are pretty much the same, as long as it's not a HUGE package. I'm just wondering if it's the same in the US.

Does it really cost anything extra for you to send something to Canada? Every time I buy something from anyone, be it on DP or Ebay, I get dinged for extra shipping charges. I never charge more if I ship across the province, or across the continent.

It's cheaper for them to send.

say a snes game, cart only?
Cost them about a 1.50 OR LESS.

I always see the price of shipping on the pack and its always less then 2 bucks no matter what it is.

Canada? Small package starts at 5.60, what a joke.
Some people will try to ding you since you're in another country, truth is, US ships cheaper to canada, then it does in house, more expensive for them to ship state to state.

This is in regards to airmail, not fedex or anything super duper fast, airmail usually arrives from the states in about 3 days.

[om3ga]

The only thing that you need to watch out for is when shipping to someone you need to mark the item as a gift or under the value of 15 dollars otherwise customs dings them big time. I've had to pay as much as 50 dollars extra when it came to my door.

[nik]

The only thing that you need to watch out for is when shipping to someone you need to mark the item as a gift or under the value of 15 dollars otherwise customs dings them big time. I've had to pay as much as 50 dollars extra when it came to my door.

I think that has more to do with marking its commercial value really low, or non-existent

[NESVIDIOT]

I've always found it more expensive to ship an item to the next province by regular post ground then to ship it to Texas by airmail. Canada Post sucks- I just had a package held by customs for more than 12 days- it was shipped from Japan, took 26 days to arrive- I almost made a claim with E-bay and Paypal so I wouldn't get burned by waiting over 30 days. Thankfully it arrived in time. I think most of the problems we encounter with shipping into or out of Canada is because of Canada Post and Canada Customs.
And definately have it shipped as a gift or prepare to pay more in duty than the item cost in the first place.

[machine.slave]

I trust people on here and CGCC, but other than that I've been burned BIG TIME on Ebay for shipping from the US.

I understand it takes a bit more effort to ship from there to here, which makes sense when they throw an extra buck or two on there, but I've had a few items where shipping was marked up 100% or more.. ie. a 99¢ 2600 cart costing almost $10 in shipping??

... then again, I'm horrible for not asking what shipping costs are before bidding, so I suppose it's partially my fault.

[om3ga]

The only thing that you need to watch out for is when shipping to someone you need to mark the item as a gift or under the value of 15 dollars otherwise customs dings them big time. I've had to pay as much as 50 dollars extra when it came to my door.

I think that has more to do with marking its commercial value really low, or non-existent

Yes you are right , but does Customs really know the value of vintage games?

They have a price chart based on the value of things, its on their website, value 120-150 is a 50 dollar charge.

[nik]

The only thing that you need to watch out for is when shipping to someone you need to mark the item as a gift or under the value of 15 dollars otherwise customs dings them big time. I've had to pay as much as 50 dollars extra when it came to my door.

I think that has more to do with marking its commercial value really low, or non-existent

Yes you are right , but does Customs really know the value of vintage games?

They have a price chart based on the value of things, its on their website, value 120-150 is a 50 dollar charge.

Not if you put "video games, 5$" or somthing, I mean really, how many of us ship more then a couple games at a time? Think of new games, they arn't even in the 50$ range unless they are a day old, and even then thats an expensive game!!

[loporjai2003]

Seems Canada Post charges more and more every year and it is cheaper and faster to send to the US or overseas via Air Mail at times then within Canada.

As for costs, varies from seller to seller, had ppl charge me the same as the US cost to Canada (they get added to favorite sellers), while others charge and arm and a leg (should have asked first before I bid, my fault).

Yep and never ever have a seller ship to Canada via UPS, you think Canada Customs and their $5 fee and tariff was bad, try UPS's "customs brokerage charge" where they pay the customs on your behalf and charge something like $35 for the privilege.

My 3c Canadian = 2c US

[SKVermin]

I generally tend to only bid on stuff that has insanely low shipping costs to Canada. I have a few favourite sellers that charge something like $3.50 per game +$0.50 for each additional. That's just $0.50 above their starting price for U.S. shipments.

When the shipping costs start nice and low, I'm generally less upset about having to pay any customs charges, which fortunately have been pretty few and far between.

My worst customs nightmare was this one: I bought a pair of Colecovision controllers off ebay for $10 U.S., with an additional $3.00 for shipping. Good deal, so far as I was concerned. I got a note in my mailbox stating that I had to stop by the post outlet to pick them up because customs charges were owing. They nailed me for $8.50 in tariffs, falling under the category of "electronic device", which I reluctantly handed over. In return, the post office employee handed me an empty envelope. It seems that when Customs opened the envelope, they did a shabby job of retaping it, and the seal opened up allowing the controllers to fall out. I promptly handed it back, refusing shipment and getting my $8.50 back, but my claim to customs to get my initial payment refunded (since it was Canada Post's fault, after all -- had they not opened the item, I would have received it) fell on deaf ears.

[machine.slave]

HEY, speak of the devil..

I just got nailed for $8 customs on a $7 item and $15 customs on a $18 item!

[om3ga]

Like i said in my earlier post , shipping from Canada and to Canada is not a problem as long as the item is marked as a gift , most people do not have a problem marking it as a gift.

[i.spotdeals]

I think Canada Post + UPS taxes and duties are BS!! The majority of the amount you pay is the fixed "handling" cost that is charged simply when an employee decides to screw you over and puts your package aside to tax you even more money on top of that. For me, most of the time the variable taxes and duties come out to peanuts.

There was this one package where I bought Dr. Mario + Megaman NES for $4.00 from a US Seller on Ebay. The seller declared the value of the two games at $50US which ended up being $17 outta my pocket. He responded to my email by saying it is "instrinsically more valuable than the selling price" !! Luckily I just printed out the Paypal invoice and was reimbursed.. phew

[C White]

The worst part about customs is that they charge you money for charging you money!!

I only got nailed twice, for relatively small charges, but the rundown were similar to such: $3.50 for taxes (GST) $5.00 for handling. So, basically they charged me $5.00 for the privilege of opening my package and taxing me on it. (noting that the handling fee was more then the damn tax)

[briskbc]

I've changed a few things about how I buy on eBay because of one particluar case. I paid $30 for 6 new DC games and the guys at customs assigned a value of $150 US to the lot and taxed me on that.

From now on I try to pick up large lots (a system and 20 games) from Canadian sellers and smaller lots (5 or 6 games) from US. I also ask the US seller to print either the auction page or the Paypal page showing exactly what I paid for them. If I have to be taxed on what I buy then fine. Just don't tax me on a price that wasn't paid.

[drummy]

When I ship to Canada, I make sure I mark the package as a gift to avoid massive taxation. Also, I put the value of it low so that customs will be less suspecting of whatever inside (to pilfer through it), even if it's a big box. Also, I try making sure that Canadians do the same so that I won't have to pay any taxes or anything. Typically, prices are low, which is great, except for the bigger boxed packages, which start to suck. I got massively owned on those big packages. Typically though, it's low, better than Europe or Asia by a trillion times.

[bibowski]

I never know what value to put on the package, because if I put it at $5 (for say... a $50 item), I'm worried that if it gets lost or damaged during shipping, the person will only get $5 reimbursement.

Is that not the case?

[nik]

Yes, but you get what you pay for, I'm sure the buyer would be understanding and would want it labeled correctly if they wanted the insurence.

[sniperCCJVQ]

I never know what value to put on the package, because if I put it at $5 (for say... a $50 item), I'm worried that if it gets lost or damaged during shipping, the person will only get $5 reimbursement.

Is that not the case?

The value of the item isnt the value of the insurance. It's 2 different things.

[bibowski]

That seems so crazy

So the value of the item that is declared is completely arbitrary. This is good news. I recently shipped a PSP to the UK for a friend and he got dinged $50 customs because I declared $300 CDN value on it. I had it insured for $300, but should have wrote 'Gift' and '$0' on it.