I have a potential buyer for a preamp I am selling. The buyer is in Canada. What is the best carrier when shipping to Canada? FedEx appear to be the cheapest and USPS appears to be the slowest. Are there any other considerations when shipping from the US to Canada?

Thanks!

John

FedEx and UPS will likely charge huge brokerage fees to the recipient.

I personally prefer that things are shipped to me via USPS because they are much, much cheaper. However, I once had to make an insurance claim with them and they did absolutely nothing for me. :thumbsdn:

Rich

One of the great things about living just on the border is that I always have things shipped to the neighboring US town when I buy something valuable from the US. I much rather deal with customs directly, because they often cut people a break when buying small amounts. Getting stuff through the mail, if you are over $20 you will generally be paying some kind of duty. A friend of mine pays duty when he buys one DVD from amazon.

UPS Ground/Standard/Standard to Canada and Fedex Ground charge large fees at the Canadian end. If the buyer refuses the shipment, you will have to pay them.

Here is the UPS link to the fees:

http://www.ups.com/content/ca/en/shipping/cost/zones/customs_clearance.html

Fedex is similar.

Try to steer the buyer to UPS Expedited or a similar service from Fedex.

If he balks at the cost, try USPS, although this may take a month or so longer for delivery (up to two weeks to clear customs is not unusual).

Also, you may have to have the buyers phone number to include in shipping documentation. Some carries will only ship electronics in their original boxes.

Fedex and UPS will charge brokerage fees that you'll end up paying when the recipienct doesn't ( I most recently paid $7 for a $30 motherboard I sent, so if you do the math -- I paid the buyer for his new motherboard)

USPS is the only option, really. Anything large jacks up the price to high heaven.

I am bitter and don't ship to Canada as somehow I have been screwed everytime I have done it.

dew.

I have sold a lot of used camera gear to Canada and have always used USPS and never had a buyer complain.

USPS is the least expensive, but it's still 2-3x the Fedex and UPS domestic prices and they don't charge the brokeage fees.

Personally, I think it's crazy on a couple points, most notably that it costs just as much to ship 15 miles across the river to Windsor, ONT as it does to some igloo up in the Yukon???

Go figure.

USPS is the least expensive, but it's still 2-3x the Fedex and UPS domestic prices and they don't charge the brokeage fees.

Personally, I think it's crazy on a couple points, most notably that it costs just as much to ship 15 miles across the river to Windsor, ONT as it does to some igloo up in the Yukon???

Go figure.


That's Canada Post for you. Our shipping rates are generally the same everywhere in Canada. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that our country is so huge, and some parts are very sparsely populated. The people sending mail back and forth in the highly populated areas are helping to pay the postage costs for the folks in the arctic or wherever else. Anyhow, as soon as your package reaches Canada, it effectively has a flat rate within Canada via Canada Post, because all USPS shipped packages are shipped via Canada Post once they pass through Canada Customs.

I hope that all makes sense.

Rich

Although Fedex website says they provide Fedex Ground service to Canada, they do not. Check the Fedex standard rate and I think you will find it is not as cheap as USPS. They do charge duties at Canadian customs. You can cut the duties down if you declare a very low value, but then you can't insure it. Make sure your buyer is aware of the fees and agrees to pay. It is a big hassle and I will never ship to Canada again. :thumbsdn:

Although Fedex website says they provide Fedex Ground service to Canada, they do not. Check the Fedex standard rate and I think you will find it is not as cheap as USPS. They do charge duties at Canadian customs. You can cut the duties down if you declare a very low value, but then you can't insure it. Make sure your buyer is aware of the fees and agrees to pay. It is a big hassle and I will never ship to Canada again. :thumbsdn:

The duties that Canada Customs charges really don't have anything to do with the person shipping the item. Anyone receiving a package from another country should know that they may have to pay duties. Safe to say that they are ignorant if they don't know that.

One generally has the option of sending items as a "gift" as well. This can save some duty costs, but the maximum allowable value of a "gift," before customs can charge duty is $60.

I always make sure to write "used" on the customs form when I ship items across borders. This way the customs officers aren't going to assume that it's a brand new piece of electronics etc. I got burned when I bought a snowboard from the USA and the seller just put "snowboard" on the form. Customs charged me duty based on a value that was far more than the snowboard was actually worth. That combined with the brokerage costs charged by UPS resulted in the snowboard costing me twice as much as I had anticipated.

Now I just won't buy anything from outside of Canada. That solves all of my problems.

There is only one way to ship to Canada. USPS air, it will take about 2 to 3 weeks and is a lot safer than UPS or fedex and you can insure against damage or loss.The buyer will be charged a $7.00 can. brokerige fee and have to pay two types of taxes GST and PST tyipically about 14.5%There are no duties on electroinic gear .

There's almost never any duties on anything (NAFTA), but you always pay a brokerage fee and full taxes on the CDN dollar amount of the total declared value + shipping costs + brokerage fees. It's the taxes that are a killer - 15% total in Ontario, and for what? Because you bought a USED item from out of the country?

I've given up buying anything from the US except little stuff from AKer's (bulbs, etc...). I only ship to the US with FedEx ground because it always gets there within a week.

Careful that the insurance covers damage and loss. Pack well and hope the buyer is honest.

There's almost never any duties on anything (NAFTA), but you always pay a brokerage fee and full taxes on the CDN dollar amount of the total declared value + shipping costs + brokerage fees. It's the taxes that are a killer - 15% total in Ontario, and for what? Because you bought a USED item from out of the country?

I've given up buying anything from the US except little stuff from AKer's (bulbs, etc...). I only ship to the US with FedEx ground because it always gets there within a week.

Careful that the insurance covers damage and loss. Pack well and hope the buyer is honest.

We can buy in Canada all day long with no trouble, do you see something wrong here?
It is that giant sucking sound going South .NAFTA :no:

We can buy in Canada all day long with no trouble, do you see something wrong here?
It is that giant sucking sound going South .NAFTA :no:

If money-sucking big government in Canada could tax sales within Canada, they would.

Thank goodness NAFTA has reduced duties and other barriers to trade to enable goods to cross the border easily. Does anyone remember what it was like before NAFTA? I do.

While other carriers may provide faster service, Canada post charges only $5 for brokerage compared to a min $50 by UPS. A subsidiary of FedEx will broker stuff for you fairly cheaply but you have to set up an account first.

I had something sent USPS from DC (to me in Manitoba) on April 5 so I will update on delivery once I get it. It's coming USPS Airmail Parcel Post for 22 USD and the supposed delviery time frame is 4-10 days. Compare that with USPS Econo for 19 USD and 4-6 WEEKS.

I also ordered somethingfrom Hong Kong once and it took two days via air mail to get to Vancouver and another 8 to get to Winnipeg. As the value was less than 20 CDN, there were no fees.

I deal with the US very often since my business requires US suppliers. USPS ground is calssed as 4-6 weeks but average time has been about 10 days to Toronto from anywhere in the US. On the occaision the seller sent by air, average time was about 10 days. Years ago USPS air became more ficton than reality because of regulations related to the requirements of delivery time anywhere in the US. The holdup is from customs into Canada onwards.

Most economical is delivery through Canada Post. No brokerage fees that are a joke anyway, simply a company cash grab. Neither UPS nor Fedex act as a clearance broker as they do not create customs documents not obtain clearance certificates. 1 day the government or a shipper will go after them.

NAFTA only benefits certain items. For cameras, point of origian is not a factor so shipping an Argus or Leica or Nikon under NAFTA is all the same. Electronics is different. Like many items supposed to establish content either in value or component cost is predominately from a NAFTA company. Reality is usually country of manufacture is sufficient. i.e. McIntosh would be under NAFTA while Pioneer would not be. 2nd reality is that customs usually does ot have the resources to monitor this.

While other carriers may provide faster service, Canada post charges only $5 for brokerage compared to a min $50 by UPS....

This is nonsense.

UPS only charges a brokerage fee on Ground/Standard/Standard to Canada service. Please see the link I posted above.

Canada Post now charges $8 on USPS Global Express. I am not sure if the slower services are still $5.

Another factor to consider for US Shippers is the largely useless tracking for USPS shipments once they hit the Canadian border.

Don't get me wrong, I ship USPS all the time. Just not for anything I want to track or want delivered on a timely basis.

The only thing I have derived from this thread is that I don't think I ever want to ship to a Canadian buyer/address.

The only thing I have derived from this thread is that I don't think I ever want to ship to a Canadian buyer/address.

It's actually not much of a hassle if you get someone on this end that knows what to expect.

There are actually some neat things about shipping to Canada. For example, if I know I am not going to be around to receive the order, I will ship USPS. After the unsuccesful delivery, it will sit in my local postal outlet, a few blocks away, for a couple of weeks. When I get back, I can walk over and pick up all my "goodies". Contrast that to Fedex, which has to be picked up at their depot in the north of the city. A few months ago a buddy of mine called me on his cell phone as he drove around trying to find the Fedex depot, which is close to impossible to find if you don't know the area. I managed to get him there after he had been circling around for half an hour.

Inevitably, you will eventually come across a newbe that insists on the shipper sending it Parcel Post, then complain when it isn't there in a week. I have had parcel post take two months.

Very interesting thread and I had no idea about any of this.

I recently sold a camera tripod and said I would ship to US and CA only.
BIG MISTAKE!!!! I got a total of three bids on the tripod and answered 22 requests for shipping costs to canada. My research showed very clearly that shipping was going to cost more then the tripod.

As Toasted Almond said;

The only thing I have derived from this thread is that I don't think I ever want to ship to a Canadian buyer/address.

Gary

This is nonsense.

UPS only charges a brokerage fee on Ground/Standard/Standard to Canada service. Please see the link I posted above.

Canada Post now charges $8 on USPS Global Express. I am not sure if the slower services are still $5.

Another factor to consider for US Shippers is the largely useless tracking for USPS shipments once they hit the Canadian border.

Don't get me wrong, I ship USPS all the time. Just not for anything I want to track or want delivered on a timely basis.


Riffer, note that your orignal link includes

"Additional charges may apply. "

near the bottom

in fine print

I've been screwed by UPS before.

Plus, given a sample wieght of 10 lbs and $150 value, using your linked rates, from DC to Winnipeg, UPS Standard = 17.85+29=46.85, with delivery on April 13. Expedited is $76, delivery on April 11. Same package via USPS Airmail parcel post $24+Customs = 32 in 4-10 days or 10th-14th, by Global Express mail, 33.45+customs= $42 in 3-5 days or 9th-11th.

Notwithstanding the above, I for one am a Canuck that would love to buy from the US more often: bigger market = better selection and lower prices. :yes: However, tack the freight and border hassles on and its much less attractive. :thumbsdn:

crabman

It's actually not much of a hassle if you get someone on this end that knows what to expect.

Agreed. I've had hassles and smooth experiences both - I always advertise shipping to the US only, but often hear from Canadians asking if I'll ship to them. A little email back and forth quickly shows whether they know what to expect, and if they do it works out fine.

Being a canadian, I have learned a few things from experience,
A) When I buy from Canadians I have a 50-50 chance that there will be "issues" I much prefer the better service I get from the Americans. They seem to try harder. Something about more compitition in the USA I think.
B) I almost always have things I purchase, [ O gauge trains, mustang parts,stereo stuff} shipped to the US border where I have made arrangments with a shipping store to hold my stuff till I drive down and pick it up. When I sell stuff On Ebay I also drive it down and ship from the USA. I find that Canada Post are the biggest legal Robber barins Ive ever met.
I do pay the taxs at the border but I must say that I get a much bigger hassel from Canada customs being a Canadian coming back into Canada than I ever do as a guest going into the USA. Canada costums come across as American wanabies on a power trip.
end of rant
Cheers Wolfgang

As an addition to the above if any canadians want me to bring there purchases across the border LEGALLY email me and yes I do love Canada and Canadians, just the service sucks sometimes
cheers Wolfgang

I have used EBay for numerous purchases from the states and have had no problems what so ever with shipping or customs. The most economical carrier I have found was the USPS. If sending via USPS airmail the delivery time from California to Ottawa was less than a week. I bought a very heavy Sony TA-E100ES and it only cost 48.00 (US$) to ship it up here. There are many items for sale on EBay that I would bid on but these sellers say ship to U.S. only. It is too bad as they are losing out on potentially better selling prices from the increased demand.

Cheers
R.

Tell me if I am wrong here!
I have had alot of dealings with Canadian gear and never had any problem when it is shipped to me. The worst I can say is it takes a bit longer then usual but does not seem to be all that more expensive.
On the flip side, sending stuff from here to Canada is a night mare and super expensive.

Apparently there is a big difference in how the US looks at FREE TRADE Vs how Canada does.

I used to live near Buffalo and occassionally we went to Toronto. On the way into Canada we got the UNWELCOME matt, WHere you going, where you from, what is your purpose for comming here Ect.Etc. The last time we went we got yanked over and fully searched, had nothing illeagal, and have never returned because of it. On the way home to the US, never a problem.

Just seems like an entirely different attitude.

Gary

I remember the posts you made here about that deal and sad to say I learned a lesson on your buck!

I just don't understand it because I have bought alot of gear from north of the border and never a problem.

Gary

Tell me if I am wrong here!
I have had alot of dealings with Canadian gear and never had any problem when it is shipped to me. The worst I can say is it takes a bit longer then usual but does not seem to be all that more expensive.
On the flip side, sending stuff from here to Canada is a night mare and super expensive.

Apparently there is a big difference in how the US looks at FREE TRADE Vs how Canada does.

I used to live near Buffalo and occassionally we went to Toronto. On the way into Canada we got the UNWELCOME matt, WHere you going, where you from, what is your purpose for comming here Ect.Etc. The last time we went we got yanked over and fully searched, had nothing illeagal, and have never returned because of it. On the way home to the US, never a problem.

Just seems like an entirely different attitude.

Gary

I've always had the exact opposite experience when travelling across the Bluewater Bridge from Sarnia to Port Huron. I think it has more to do with entering one country as an unknown visitor vs. returning to your country of origin. Not only were the US customs agents very unpleasant, there were usually far too few working, which made crossing the border a lengthy process. Returning to Canada rarely involved much more than a friendly greating followed by being waved through.

Rich

The simplest, most cost effective way to ship to Canada from the US, in order:
- FedEx International Economy (broker fees included in the freight cost)
- UPS Expedited (as above)
- USPS airmail
In all cases, the buyer will have to pay GST, and possibly PST. No other surprises beyond that.
:D

I've always had the exact opposite experience when travelling across the Bluewater Bridge from Sarnia to Port Huron. I think it has more to do with entering one country as an unknown visitor vs. returning to your country of origin. Not only were the US customs agents very unpleasant, there were usually far too few working, which made crossing the border a lengthy process. Returning to Canada rarely involved much more than a friendly greating followed by being waved through.

Rich

What you said makes perfect sense.