Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Topic: Shipping from U.S. to Canada... (Read 1709 times) previous topic - next topic

Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

April 11, 2005, 07:40:06 PM

I'm listing some stuff on eBay for my friend and I have a perspective buyer located in Canada. What are the special steps and procedures when shipping stuff to Canada? Will it be worth it to ship the items still?

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #1 – April 11, 2005, 08:11:50 PM

I sold some camera parts on Ebay and shipped them to Canada--over 5 years ago. I do not remember any special requirements. At most, you may get the hazardous items questioning at the USPO, or you may be required to label the package as auto parts. That's my opinion. Of course, the rules may have changed since 2001. They just announced that starting in 2006, Americans will need a passport to cross the border. That costs as well as getting the required picture. I do not remember the expense. Mine just expired this year. What a surprise that will be to US recreational buffs next year.

John R

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #2 – April 11, 2005, 09:44:27 PM

All i can say is Send it through UPS if you can.it's the least hassle and i'm sure the guy in Canada will appreciate it. (this is first hand experience talking). if you send through USPS they'll have to pay duties once the package arrives.. but through UPS for some reason that doesn't happen.

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #3 – April 11, 2005, 10:13:25 PM

baxo that's the other way around, ups will charge a 30 dollar brokerage fee+ whatever duty there is.(example: 30.00+10.00=40.00 instead of 10.00 through usps) USPS is only duty,no brokerage.
I won't even buy from someone who ships only ups,i've been scamed by them for their stupid brokerage too many times.

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #4 – April 11, 2005, 10:15:22 PM

As another canadian, I second USP. They are almost always cheeper to.

If you wanna be nice to the canuck: list the item as a gift (under $60) or a sale under ($20). That way it is duty exempt.

You must lable the value and contents on the package. That is the only special requirement.

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #5 – April 11, 2005, 10:45:46 PM

As yet another Canadian who reularly ships into the USA and receives items from the USA I can also vouch for USPS (the post office). Like Dominator says, UPS whacks Canadians with an outrageous brokerage fee that starts at $30 plus the GST/PST (there is no duty on items under $200 made in USA, Canada or Mexico - only sales taxes have to be paid). The brokerage fees increase exponentially when the value increases. If the value is under $20 Canadian UPS will not charge their ripoff fees, though, as they cannot collect any taxes.

The post office charges a brokerage fee as well, but the fee is set at $5 regardless of value - the receiver then has to pay the sales taxes. It's a FAR, FAR better proposition than UPS or FedEx (who also rips their international customers off) - in fact, there's about a 50/50 chance that the person won't have to pay anything.

As for special steps, you will have to fill out a customs declaration. Depending on the size and value of the item this declaration could be a simple green sticker or a larger piece of paper. You'll have to state what is in the package as well as the value. Do your customer a favour - if he buys the part for, say, $20, and the part is really worth $100, only declare it at $20. I don't know how many times I've bought bulk surplus items on eBay for pennies on the dollar and gotten nailed bigtime with taxes when the parcel arrived and the seller declared it at full retail value instead of what I paid!

As for the gift/sale under $20 thing, use your discretion. Customs does open parcels, and if they open one and see an invoice in a package that was declared as a gift, or if they see a plasma TV declared at $20, they will at the best re-value the parcel and at the worst investigate you and the receiver.

But yes, you should ship to Canada. Any person that sells on ebay and says "Will ship to USA only" should be beaten to death with the item they're selling. This is a real sore spot with me - nothing worse than seeiing something I really want, only to be derailed by some ignorant ****tard that couldn't be bothered by spending two minutes filling out a simple piece of paper.

[/rant]

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #6 – April 11, 2005, 11:41:59 PM

i have to agree with the post office also.now i am not sure if this works both ways but shipping to the US i tag my parcels as a gift and no one getshiznit with duty charges this way.

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #7 – April 12, 2005, 04:51:55 AM

Quote from: Thunder Chicken

But yes, you should ship to Canada. Any person that sells on ebay and says "Will ship to USA only" should be beaten to death with the item they're selling. This is a real sore spot with me - nothing worse than seeiing something I really want, only to be derailed by some ignorant ****tard that couldn't be bothered by spending two minutes filling out a simple piece of paper.

Actually i've found that most of the time if you ask the person nicely they will ship to canada, only once or twice have I been told no.

I will also vouch for USPS for shipping, been raped many times using ups and fed-ex where they declare my $20 item worth $100-$350(!) (which a few times it was worth that but I didnt pay that much and sure as hell am not paying tax on that much!) PLUS their brokerage which is BS that I have to pay them to open my package in the first place!

but yeah... thats my lil rant aswell. Go with USPS

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #8 – April 12, 2005, 10:23:42 AM

So why all the extra charges to ship to Canada anyway? Who is levying these charges? The USPS, UPS, Canadian gubmint, US gubmint?

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #9 – April 12, 2005, 03:49:55 PM

It is the Canadian gubmint. They tax the holy bejeesus out of us, and to make sure we don't skip those taxes by importing our stuff they tax the holy bejeesus out of that as well. They get around the "What about free trade" argument by saying it's sales taxes they're charging, not duty. These are taxes that must be paid by the receiver before he is allowed to accept his package, so Brian, it won't affect you.

Quote

i have to agree with the post office also.now i am not sure if this works both ways but shipping to the US i tag my parcels as a gift and no one getshiznit with duty charges this way.

I'm pretty sure Americans are allowed to import an item worth up to $200USD without paying taxes, so unless you're selling expensive stuff you're wasting your time marking it as "gift"

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #10 – April 12, 2005, 05:52:23 PM

Have to agree with the "will only ship to the us" bull!
I have asked many times and have only been refused twice,but on those 2 refusals boy did i lay into them.

Re: Shipping from U.S. to Canada...

Reply #11 – April 13, 2005, 10:25:07 PM

As if to drive the "Don't use UPS" thing into the ground, my father recently bought a tonneau cover for his Dodge truck from a guy in the USA. The guy sent it UPS (in his defence he had to because it was too long for USPS). He declared it at $50 and marked it as a gift.

So UPS converts that $50 into Canadian dollars. $61.01. There's a cap of $60 for gifts, so UPS charged the GST and PST on the $1.01. This tax works out to sixteen cents. Fine, right? Well, to collect this sixteen cents UPS tacked on a $29.10 "Brokerage fee". To make matters worse, the brokerage fee is taxable as well, so they added another $4.37 in taxes to that $29.26 (the brikerage fee plus the original sixteen cents). The total damage was $33.50 for $0.16 worth of taxes!!!

I will not use UPS for any reason. Even though I can ship to the USA and Americans will not get nailed because there are no taxes due, I won't use them because they are crooks. If i had the resources and time I'd start a boycott of their services. But I don't. I can only warn people to stay away from them like I'm doing here. I simply hope that I cost them enough customers that they lost more than what they've stolen from me (and my father).