Custom/Brokerage Fees?

[mint39]

its not duty, IT is hst

[kylemclaren7]

mirajtrading.com for all your canadian wax needs haha

[tmlfan1996]

I can relate to the frustration of import fees. I recently bought a game used goal puck off ebay for $33 from the states. I ended up having to pay $20 in import fees on it. Also kinda frustrating as the seller put a value of like $90 on the item when it had sold for nearly 3 times less.

[Craig2]

I hear the word "duty" being thrown around a lot in this thread, but the fact is that there is no duty on sports cards. What you're paying is one or both of:

1) GST/HST (depending on your location within Canada)
2) Brokerage fees

It seems to be the brokerage fees that most annoy people, and understandably so since the work involved to act as a broker for most of these transactions takes about two minutes to complete. UPS is the absolute worst in terms of heavy charges, Canada Post is the best, and Fedex/DHL/Purolator all fall somewhere in the middle. If you're looking at ordering boxes or even an expensive card, I'd recommend avoiding UPS whenever possible and asking instead for some kind of USPS priority international shipping.

Before I had a U.S. shipping address, I acted as my own broker on a couple of occasions to save those crazy brokerage fees. It took me about 20 minutes in total to run down to the CBSA building, fill out the paperwork, and get my package. I know that's not an option for most people, but it just shows you how nice the profit margin must be for those charging the fees.

[rydlar99]

Easy solution is if they won't send USPS across the border, don't use them. My orders are usually in the $1000-5000 range & I've stopped using Dave & Adams, Blowout & Pristine Auctions - who I made three purchases of over $1000 in autographed memorabilia from and got nailed about 30-40% extra at the border. Just couldn't handle the fees.

Miraj, Quecan or go local. If you're a regular buyer your local shop could do you a solid and not bend you over on markup. :)

[jogesc2]

USPS for anything shipped to Canada. It's usually a bit more expensive but you almost never get dinged any extra charges.

I'm lucky, in that my parents have a place in Palm Springs so I can ship it there and have them bring it home to Canada at some point.

[abls10]

I may be mistaken. And I pose this as a question. But aren't these Canadian Government imposed charges not U.S. companies or persons that you deal with? I do get the frustration of the seller over stating value. But the seller, whether an individual or company, has to state value to cover themselves when shipping. I know I can't complete a shipping transaction to Canada without putting a value for the item. And I do value the item for what I was paid. I remember getting chewed out by someone, because I put the value of $100 (which is what I was paid) on the customs form. He said he had to pay over $20 for taxes. Again, I ask, is that my fault or is that something that Canadian citizens have to put up with? Or I guess a better question would be who actually benefits from these charges USPS or UPS, or the Canadian Government?

[Craig2]

The fees imposed are twofold in many of these cases, so multiple groups benefit:

1) HST/GST - Imposed by Canadian federal and provincial governments
2) Brokerage fees - Charged by the delivery service (ie. USPS, UPS, etc.)

It's just the cost of doing business for those of us in Canada, not the fault of anyone. American sellers should never misstate value on sold items because insurance will only cover the declared value, and because it's fraud. If a Canadian buyer is asking you to do that, I'd personally pass on the deal.

I may be mistaken. And I pose this as a question. But aren't these Canadian Government imposed charges not U.S. companies or persons that you deal with? I do get the frustration of the seller over stating value. But the seller, whether an individual or company, has to state value to cover themselves when shipping. I know I can't complete a shipping transaction to Canada without putting a value for the item. And I do value the item for what I was paid. I remember getting chewed out by someone, because I put the value of $100 (which is what I was paid) on the customs form. He said he had to pay over $20 for taxes. Again, I ask, is that my fault or is that something that Canadian citizens have to put up with? Or I guess a better question would be who actually benefits from these charges USPS or UPS, or the Canadian Government?

[chancellor]

it almost appended to me , I ordered for 220$ of boxes from Dave & Adams and the shipping was around 60 us $ from ups , at that price you expect the import to be payed , I called them and it was not , lucky for me i called like 30 minutes after the order and the guy nicely offer to cancel the order for me . If ebay can but the import fees on the listing you think that its easy to do the same with online stores but its not.

[MacDuff77]

Small update - after my package moved to delay status, I called UPS and they were not able to tell me why. They also re-iterated that I still owe $60 handling fees. So, I go to turn off my Christmas lights last night and sitting on the porch infront of my door is the UPS package. I was home all day, so they did not knock on the door, just left it on my porch and I did not have to pay any fees. Merry Christmas to me.