Can any other Canadian on this group please recommend a US mailorder site, that, does not charge the earth and the moon for shipping?
Andy
I haven’t done much mailorder from the US, and when I do I normally combine orders with several friends to spread the mail costs around. Both Trainworld and Micro-Mark charge around US$25.00 for orders to Canada. And when I order from these firms, I also make sure it is a decently sized order again to spread the costs around.
If you should try other shops, confirm ahead of time that they will send your parcel by US Mail only. Almost any other sevice such as UPS, FedEx Ground, etc., will charge you $25-35 “fee” for collecting the 14% GST we must pay. Send by US Mail and the charge by our Post Office is $5.00.
Good luck!
I ship through a friend who I met here on the MR forum. Saves me money and we have a laugh or two
Fergie
If there is a hobby shop near you, have them order for you.
That is what I do if my LHS doesn’t have what I want in stock. I don’t have to deal with shipping, or customs fees as the store takes care of those. In many cases, you end up paying about the same (maybe less) than if you ordered it yourself. By ordering through the store, you’re pretty much certain that you’ll get what you ordered – no scams; and if you need warranty service or to return the item, its usually a lot simpler.
As an example… I ordered a bridge kit through my LHS. The total cost (price + taxes) was litterally only a couple dollars more than the cost (price + currency exchange + shipping) had I ordered it myself (I have no idea what the customs’ fees would have been). The bonuses: no customs fees to pay, saving me money; and keeping the LHS in business.
Some of the prices offered by these internet “stores” can be very tempting. But we Canadians have to factor in shipping, taxes and customs which all add up. Many of these places ship internationally ONLY by UPS or FedEX, which tack on exhorbitant customs brokers fees (which you might only find out weeks after delivery when the brokers mail you their bill). There are even a few who refuse to ship outside the US (claiming too many orders get “lost” and insurance claims take too long). I’ve even run into one site (not train related) who refused to ship to Canada because they disliked Canada’s foreign policy vis à vis the Iraq War.
Be sure to read the retailer’s small print regarding shipping, returns, billing, back-orders, and partial shipments.
Insist the seller sends only by U.S. Postal Service, send it the cheapest rate(it the same time frame as more expensive rates) you must tell the seller to stipulate what service you want as many sellers just go to the post office and tell them to ship to you, and the USPS will usually go the highest rate, By the way, go to the USPS website and you can calculate the shipping rate rather close if you can guess the weight. I have been almost spot on with guessing. Before I almost bought an item I asked the seller to quote me a shipping price, he quoted $21.95u.s. I looked it up on the USPS rate chart and it was $4.00, A lot of these guys make a lot of money overcharging postal rates. I must admit I have had super service from sellers in the U.S. -----And watch out for that “service” charge private carriers pass on to you(like @$35.00 fee)YIKES
Mailorder can be tricky, because the price looks soooo good, but then the extras are tacked on and suddenly, it’s not so good anymore.
Shipping by mail is by far the cheapest. Providing they don’t inflate the price dramatically by making a good profit on the “handling” portion. Yes, packaging cost money, but charging $7 extra on top of $3 postage is a little excessive.
And the nice people at the post office will only charge you $5 to do the brokerage, plus the GST owing on the declared value. (Don’t complain too loudly, before the GST it was 13.5% federal sales tax.) Small packages may slip through. At one time they didn’t even bother with small packages worth less than $50.
As to UPS, et al, and their brokerage scam. You can do the brokerage yourself. They’ll deny it, but you too can fill in the paperwork, at a substantial savings. Talk to Customs, they can point you in the right direction. As to any taxes owing, they are your responsibility, not their theirs.
As to the post office losing things, UPS is just as good, if not better, at losing things. They also won’t be too interested in looking for it. So you can’t win.
Looks like others are just repeating what I said in my first post on this thread, re using other shippers. And calculating actual US postage may or may not be useful, as many places such as those that I quoted charge a fixed rate for parcels to Canada.
One reason for the fixed rate and higher prices is because UPS will pick up parcels from their place of business. For US mail, someone has to take the parcel to the nearest post office. This is partially why the fixed price or higher price.
And dealing with local shops here in Canada can some times get you close prices to stuff from the US, but you do have to know the US prices. For instance, an area shop offers Bachmann On30 equipment and vastly inflated prices, with no discounts. Most of the locos have US list prices of around $275.00, so this is what they base their Canadian selling price on. BUT you can get most of the locos at discounted prices of around US$125.00. Even adding on $25.00 for shipping, paying the GST/HST and collecting fees, the models are way cheaper.
The shop I’m referring to is asking $385.00 for a Bachmann On30 Shay. Add the 14% tax and it would be over $400.00 in Canadian funds. Buy it in the US for $125.00, and with fees would cost you less than $200.00 delivered.
It’s hardly worth placing small orders from US firms, but higher priced items and bigger orders can result in substantial savings.
I sure would like to support my LHS all the time, but the way I look at it the $200.00+ that I saved on my Shay is just as good in my pocket as in his!