Import charges suck
 

As a Canadian I accept paying customs on products I buy from the US but damn it chaps my arse to get dinged customs charges for a frigging hobby card.

If I lived close to a boarder city I could just ship it to a UPS store and go pick it up to bring back as it would be super easy to conceal but that's not an option here.

Sorry, useless post I guess. Just annoyed because I'd like to buy more cards for myself and son but the import charges are a frustrating cost add that I have to factor into price of a card I may he interested in.

Any fellow canucks relate?

Cheers all.

PS: mlb the show releases tonight so that's something to be excited about :)

Pardon my ignorance, but how much are the import taxes for Canadians?

[QUOTE=Mister2Bits;18096073]Pardon my ignorance, but how much are the import taxes for Canadians?[/QUOTE]

It kind of depends. Bought a $425 USD (530CAD) card and import charges were $80 CDN on top of the shipping cost.

I had an eBay buyer tell me his offer put him at his $100 budget on a card. That bid was for $55 (that was my number regardless, so he won it). Part of that is eBay's international shipping program, but yeah... import charges are a monster.

Sounds like you need to sign up with Get It Shipped International. I'm in Toronto and opened an account in February and absolutely love it. I no longer have to pay $15 for a card to be shipped to me AND have to face duties on top of it. I've bought more from the US in the last month and a half than I have in the last year just because it's so much more cost effective and I don't have to worry about a US seller not wanting to ship to Toronto.

[QUOTE=Triple B;18096169]Sounds like you need to sign up with Get It Shipped International. I'm in Toronto and opened an account in February and absolutely love it. I no longer have to pay $15 for a card to be shipped to me AND have to face duties on top of it. I've bought more from the US in the last month and a half than I have in the last year just because it's so much more cost effective and I don't have to worry about a US seller not wanting to ship to Toronto.[/QUOTE]

This is interesting. I checked their site but it's not really clear how/what they do and how it solves the custom charge solution.

Can you share your process with them? Thanks!!

[QUOTE=Natenator76;18096940]This is interesting. I checked their site but it's not really clear how/what they do and how it solves the custom charge solution.

Can you share your process with them? Thanks!![/QUOTE]

Check your PMs

Can customs charge a fee for cards that are sent as trade? I’m not sure how customs can equates value on a traded item.

I have purchased CFL cards from a couple of LCS’s in Canada and the charges were not bad though it’s been nearly a decade.

Heck, I had to pay almost $1500 import duty for something from France.

[QUOTE=Natenator76;18096940]This is interesting. I checked their site but it's not really clear how/what they do and how it solves the custom charge solution.

Can you share your process with them? Thanks!![/QUOTE]

Can you post on here what you find out?

I was looking at the site yesterday for about an hour, and I'm in the same boat as you. I can't even find any pricing information.

I feel the pain as well.

Lets just say you have to really believe in the prospect lol

So I didn't want to share it here in case Blowout gets upset, but I suppose they'll delete it if it is offensive...

If you're anywhere outside of the US, Get It Shipped International is a great option. They give you an address in Vermont to use and you simply purchase cards and have it mailed to your mailbox in Vermont (you'll be paying anywhere from $0 to $4 for shipping). Once it arrives at GISI, they scan it and share it with you in a shared Google drive if you're a VIP). When you're ready to ship, you make a request and they FedEx it to you.

My suggestion is to call them or visit their website for more information.

If you sign up, use the promo code LEGEND for 50% off of a 1 year subscription. I bought the VIP package which cost me $35 after the discount.

Yeah the import fees and shipping from the US are awful. I’d buy a lot more cards from the US if I wasn’t just throwing money away. On a positive note I get to support Canadian sellers more I guess


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[QUOTE=Triple B;18098310]So I didn't want to share it here in case Blowout gets upset, but I suppose they'll delete it if it is offensive...

If you're anywhere outside of the US, Get It Shipped International is a great option. They give you an address in Vermont to use and you simply purchase cards and have it mailed to your mailbox in Vermont (you'll be paying anywhere from $0 to $4 for shipping). Once it arrives at GISI, they scan it and share it with you in a shared Google drive if you're a VIP). When you're ready to ship, you make a request and they FedEx it to you.

My suggestion is to call them or visit their website for more information.

If you sign up, use the promo code LEGEND for 50% off of a 1 year subscription. I bought the VIP package which cost me $35 after the discount.[/QUOTE]


Am I missing something here? How does it go through customs fee free, are they valuing the shipment at all? I know customs opens "cards" boxes frequently and they do search sales records for values.

What am I missing?

Canada they have you over a barrel.

[QUOTE=Triple B;18096169]Sounds like you need to sign up with Get It Shipped International. I'm in Toronto and opened an account in February and absolutely love it. I no longer have to pay $15 for a card to be shipped to me AND have to face duties on top of it. I've bought more from the US in the last month and a half than I have in the last year just because it's so much more cost effective and I don't have to worry about a US seller not wanting to ship to Toronto.[/QUOTE]

I could use this info too as I never buy anything on Ebay anymore from Americans unless they are older sellers as a card with a few bucks cost 30 or so with Pitney Bowes garbage shipping costs. Thanks!

Fees
 

You Canadians probably know this already, but this is how the import fees work:

There are 4 provinces that collect a 5% Goods and Services fee, plus what ever the Province sales tax % is for that particular province. So, if your province has a 6% sales tax, and you live in one of the 4 provinces, you will owe 11% in fees when the package crosses the border.

There are 5 provinces that collect a straight 13%, called the HST, and separate sales taxes are not collected.

There are 4 provinces that only collect the 5% Goods and Services fee, but they do not collect any sales tax.

So, there is a big difference, depending on what province you live in.

There may be additional fees, depending on what types of goods you are purchasing and depending on what country you are purchasing from.

Shipmycards.com



I live in Toronto and send my cards to their US receiving address. They retain the cards until you choose to ship it home.

You can declare a zero (or $5 or whatever) value on your fedex shipment.

They charge $1 per card received, $5 per card that is sent to their secondary site (to protect you from Arizona state taxes).

I can’t recommend it enough if you buy from Canada, and with any regularity.

So essentially everyone is using these services simply to not declaring the value.

Once you get packages checked and they find you lied and you clear it up by paying, you are flagged. These tax avoidance methods of simply not declaring value work until they do not.

There is as I thought, no mystery to this method. Use this service, use that service, just say lie about the value of the cards and cross your fingers.

[QUOTE=CanadianKid;18099874]So essentially everyone is using these services simply to not declaring the value.

Once you get packages checked and they find you lied and you clear it up by paying, you are flagged. These tax avoidance methods of simply not declaring value work until they do not.

There is as I thought, no mystery to this method. Use this service, use that service, just say lie about the value of the cards and cross your fingers.[/QUOTE]

I'm using it to buy cards from US sellers without having to pay $14 a shot to ship. I'll worry about the declaration amount later, but you're oversimplifying. If someone wants to declare low, that's their own risk to take. I'm declaring the full amount since I'm not buying $10,000 cards.

[QUOTE=Triple B;18099887]I'm using it to buy cards from US sellers without having to pay $14 a shot to ship. I'll worry about the declaration amount later, but you're oversimplifying. If someone wants to declare low, that's their own risk to take. I'm declaring the full amount since I'm not buying $10,000 cards.[/QUOTE]

Honorable and I do get the shipping savings but the above advice about saving the fee's from others is simply just flat out as old as time, lie. For me I ship to my friends or family in NY state, they can than collect purchase over a time period, shipping is cheaper, faster and I do declare it all. For me there is no night of sleep I would lose to save $$$.

[QUOTE=frenchquarter;18099218]You Canadians probably know this already, but this is how the import fees work:

There are 4 provinces that collect a 5% Goods and Services fee, plus what ever the Province sales tax % is for that particular province. So, if your province has a 6% sales tax, and you live in one of the 4 provinces, you will owe 11% in fees when the package crosses the border.

There are 5 provinces that collect a straight 13%, called the HST, and separate sales taxes are not collected.

[b][COLOR="DarkRed"]There are 4 provinces that only collect the 5% Goods and Services fee, but they do not collect any sales tax.[/COLOR][/b]

So, there is a big difference, depending on what province you live in.

There may be additional fees, depending on what types of goods you are purchasing and depending on what country you are purchasing from.[/QUOTE]

This is my situation, and just about the only time I get hit with customs/duties is when it arrives through eBay’s GSP and/or a courier (not USPS or Canada Post). The odd exception, but this has been my experience for several years.

That aside, the basic shipping fees are out of control. When I see an auction I’m interested in with posted shipping < $10US, I feel like I already won.

Don't use UPS, Fedex or GPS on Ebay.

I only paid duties once out of a thousand times because I did not realize the shipper out of Germany was using Fedex.

Buying and shipping to COMC sucks now too because you have to pay tax.
Basically terrible all around for buying.