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Selling to Canadians

I've read about nightmares selling equipment to our neighbors north of the border and would like to have some guidance on how best to handle such a transaction. Is there an exchange rate issue? Also, what's the best way to ship (cables) -- and how are the duties handled? Is it a percentage of the sale price and, if so, do they go by the price new or the resale price? Thanks a lot for your help.
128x1289rw
9rw's avatar
9rw OP
318 posts
 
Thanks everyone for all of your insight. Here's something that's very strange. My wife called the USPS customer service department today and was told by a woman who spoke with a heavy accent that the insurance limit is -- get this -- $675. So that makes this service pretty useless unless the buyer agrees to assume all risks. So this seems to be a nightmare indeed.
mr_man
72 posts
 
If the item is mfg'd in North America the buyer won't have to pay duties anyway.

Actually, only if it's originaly manufactured in Canada(Bryston, Classe, YBA, etc) would a Canadian buyer not have to pay duty on it.

I don't know what the weight restriction is for USPS, but I've had a 40lb cd player(50lbs total) shipped up here thru USPS with no trouble whatsoever.

Incidently, if you do(as an American seller) have duties charges redirected back to you, be sure to inform the buyer before assuming they're trying to avoid paying them.
I had an amp shipped from a reputable seller in ohio and thought I had covered all costs when it arrived.
However, it was only when I contacted the buyer months later did he inform me of the charges.
I was stunned!
Naturaly I reimbursed him(and purchased the second amp).
mikeyc8
174 posts
 
9rw: what relevance does the "woman who spoke with a heavy accent" have here?
kublakhan
717 posts
 
When customs is involved you never know what's going to happen.

I still don't understand this phenomenon. Twice I purchase gear from Canada and received it only to get a bill from UPS for about $20-$30 a month later for shipping charges even though I had paid shipping to the seller and UPS delivered it w/o notifying me there would be extra charges. Calling them yielded no results. I just decided not to pay and after a while the bills stopped coming. Who knows if it ever showed up on my credit report.
thefalls1117
74 posts
 
""Actually, only if it's originaly manufactured in Canada(Bryston, Classe, YBA, etc) would a Canadian buyer not have to pay duty on it. ""

No duties on anything manufactured in Canada or US and I think even Mexico.Just taxes GST in all provinces and GST and PST in a few.
All else fair game for duties/taxes....
With that being said INCONSISTENCY still rules the day at customs and border crossings.
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