Shipping gear from US into Canada

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Posted by El~ZaPo on Jun-11-2002 22:39:

Shipping gear from US into Canada

Hey I'm Canada (like many of you on this board) and when I get around to buying my gear it's likely that I will buy it from the US and have it shipped over the border. I'd like to know if any of you have done this for your gear and could tell me how much extra they charge for this stuff? (mixer and turntables)

Posted by JohnSmith on Jun-11-2002 23:27:

DON'T

especially turntables. they RAPE you at the border.

i bought a mixer, used from scottaculous.

he marked $100 for the value(even though it was worth more than that). shipping was like $23, completely reasonable.

but it was another $53 just to get it over the border!

technics will be even worse, WAY worse.

buy your turntables local. if you have to, drive a few towns over or something. if you MUST then ship the mixer over the border. and records, you pretty much have to canada sucks.

but, don't even TRY to get technics shipped, they are so heavey, it will be really expensive, and they will charge you probably a couple hundred bucks each in customs.

Posted by DJ Chrono on Jun-12-2002 01:03:

I got a DJ pack with mixer and tables, valued at about $1000, and I had to pay about $150-200 for customs. and about $150 for shipping.

Posted by El~ZaPo on Jun-12-2002 02:10:

So much for my plan to save money. Guess I'll have to buy locally. Thanks for your help.

ps: I got raped by customs when I bought my headphones, almost costing me the price of 2 pairs.

Posted by van_dyk_13 on Jun-12-2002 02:23:

raped!!!

Hey guys the same goes for me i bought brand new techs from the states, and the guy i bought them off of has a record store down in NY city, he sent them by UPS and i got charged 180 dollars CAN. at my door, and there was nothing i could do about it, how shitty is that.

cheers
van_dyk_13

Posted by DJ LIQUID on Jun-12-2002 03:13:

whoa sorry guys

i never realized how much you had to pay more just to get whats easily/cheap available over here

Posted by Dj Zinni on Jun-12-2002 17:12:

canada must be using the customs money to assemble an underground army capable of taking over the United states. Their unevolvement in any wars, has just been a huge front, to hide the fact...... think about it lol

Posted by j_spot on Jun-12-2002 18:04:

zinni..stay out of canada and wars, this is the DJ room..I really dont want to get into US terrorism of other countries thru its 'armed forces'

Posted by Milhouse on Jun-12-2002 19:24:

the other option is have someone (a friend) in the US order and then ship it to you... that way you avoid crazy fees cause it's only a package from a friend to a friend... and most of the charges at the border are GST and PST (or HST)... but UPS and other couriers also charge brokerage fees as well so if you can get it sent via just regular mail you can avoid some of those fees (but that's not always wise as regular mail isn't really that well insured...)... another option is to try to order from someone who's hooked up with Borderfree (only a few online retailers have this... they give you a guarunteed price (no hidden fees at the door)...

these are just my experiences...

Posted by El~ZaPo on Jun-12-2002 20:08:

quote:
Originally posted by Milhouse
the other option is have someone (a friend) in the US order and then ship it to you... that way you avoid crazy fees cause it's only a package from a friend to a friend... and most of the charges at the border are GST and PST (or HST)... but UPS and other couriers also charge brokerage fees as well so if you can get it sent via just regular mail you can avoid some of those fees (but that's not always wise as regular mail isn't really that well insured...)... another option is to try to order from someone who's hooked up with Borderfree (only a few online retailers have this... they give you a guarunteed price (no hidden fees at the door)...

these are just my experiences...

Thanks for info. When I ordered my headphones I got them shipped into the country by UPS and there was a massive price increase because of exchange, shipping, customs, and brokerage fee as well.

Unfortunately I don't know anyone in the US that could do this for me. Milhouse, do you happen to have any links of dj stores that have this Borderfree feature you mentioned? Or maybe anyone knows links to some Canadian dj stores? (I know of dmentiondj and axemusic). Also if I were to go to the US and buy the gear, how much would I have to pay at the border to get it across?

Thanks for all your help.

Posted by Milhouse on Jun-12-2002 20:16:

the only one I know of is Etronics... I've used them before for computer stuff but never for DJ'ing (they have seem to have a lot of stock though)...

http://www.etronics.com/

edit:

but after checking some prices it looks like you might be better paying the fees at the border...

I got 2 gemini SV2200's for 400US (shipping and all that included) at Audiolines... (paid $100CDN for customs charges)

so it cost $700 total... but etronics has them for $400US a piece...

Posted by El~ZaPo on Jun-12-2002 20:25:

quote:
Originally posted by Milhouse
the only one I know of is Etronics... I've used them before for computer stuff but never for DJ'ing (they have seem to have a lot of stock though)...

http://www.etronics.com/

edit:

but after checking some prices it looks like you might be better paying the fees at the border...

I got 2 gemini SV2200's for 400US (shipping and all that included) at Audiolines... (paid $100CDN for customs charges)

so it cost $700 total... but etronics has them for $400US a piece...

Etronics is where I got my headphones, lol.

Posted by Milhouse on Jun-12-2002 20:35:

you used etronics and they dinged you, weird???

did you use the Canadian checkout option?? that's what I did and I didn't have any suprise charges...but you know now that I think about it I did that last summer... before 9-11 I didn't really keep up on how the border policies changed after that point... so maybe I'm talking out of my a##... sorry... I never really connected the two until now...

Posted by El~ZaPo on Jun-12-2002 20:43:

Pretty sure I used the Canadian checkout option... oh well the headphone were worth it, I use them at least an hour every day.

Has anyone bought their gear in the US and actually bring it over the border themselves? Cause I'm wondering how much customs would charge you that way. Maybe the same amount?

Posted by DamnDirtyApe on Jun-13-2002 00:41:

quote:
Originally posted by El~ZaPo
Pretty sure I used the Canadian checkout option... oh well the headphone were worth it, I use them at least an hour every day.

Has anyone bought their gear in the US and actually bring it over the border themselves? Cause I'm wondering how much customs would charge you that way. Maybe the same amount?

They will charge you GST + PST on anything you bring over. However, if you are actually in the US for any length of time you are allowed to bring over a set amount of stuff duty-free. If you stay 48 hours or more you are allowed $200CDN worth of stuff duty free, but if you stay 7 days or more you can bring back $750 worth of stuff (except some booze and cigs).

My dad travels to the US frequently and brings me back stuff I buy online once and awhile. Unfortunately he only stays 4-5 days so it's only $200 worth of stuff, not enough for anything significant.

Posted by E-Sky on Jun-14-2002 05:16:

beware! i just got my order from etronics yesterday.
i ordered a hd25 headphone but they sent me hd25 SP !!!!
i email them about this problem. havent reply yet.
we can wait and see what they r gonna reply.

*MAD*