Canadians buying fron US Online Retailers?

FIMS · #1

Are there any Canadians here who have purchased from any US online retailer recently?

I may stray from my usual place of purchase and try some other places from a previous thread, but Im curious about product coming over the border, issues with cross border shipping costs, and extra/different sales taxes.

If any of these issues make it not worthwhile to do so.

noddy · #2

Never had any problems at all

One or two parcels have been opened though - but sent on untouched in any case - sometimes even without import being added.

By and large import duties are applied where the value of the item is stated

Otherwise it's fine. Because it hasn't (until recently) tended to work out much cheaper, I tend not to bother unless it is something difficult to to obtain online in Canada - which (in all frankness) does appear to be a lot of the things I am interested in

skunk_2 · #3

ive ordered from knifecenter and newgraham to canada, both twice, and havnt had any problems customs wise, but have had to pay duty when they show up here. sometimes a lot!
-side question! is duty more on a knife made in japan than in Colorado? because it certainly seems the case, but its just might be coincidence.

SmoothOne25 · #4

my question is the other way. what if i buy from WandW's and it is 95 cdn? what is that in us dollars? also i have emailed twice and called once and left message and no response. it worries me to buy from them if there is a problem is this a precursor of what will happen if i have to send it back? anyone use them lately i know someone who uses them but dont talk to her anymore.

skunk_2 · #5

i use a site like http://www.xe.com/ucc to do a currency conversion, it changes a little day to day. if you using a credit card or paypal they use that days rate to charge you.

right now $95 CAN = 91.2441 USD

vampyrewolf · #6

I get most of my toys from across the border, and occasionally from hong kong. I've never had an issue with shipping and duty as long as I avoid UPS (35usd brokerage fee, to start with). Pay $10-20 if I get nailed for duty and handling fees, seems to be about 1/4 of the packages get nailed via usps and all of my DHL shipped ones.

Only issue I've had was a salsa I won on here (way back... 03, 04?), customs nailed it as a centrifugal opening knife and my fighting it didn't work. I've had every seller since then crank down the pivot and haven't had another problem.

Even with paypal fees, conversion and shipping... I've been quoted a price a few bucks cheaper than W&W for a Ti millie. Depending on the seller you can usually save $5-10 buying across the border from a dealer... Or buying on ebay and through forums you can usually save 1/2 if you buy used.
My LH millie came out $3 cheaper than W&W's pre-shipped price. Nothing on duty and taxes on it.

FIMS · #7

Its the duty issue Im concerned about. I got dinged with that a few times before with other products and got turned off from cross-border shopping on-line.

Customs makes me laugh though. They claim to be in the same LE club as myself and my brothers and sisters in blue. They all carry the same knives we do, but when a Joe-Blow orders something that peaks their interest like a knife, all of a sudden its a banned item, much like the one in their pocket. And it gets seized.

angusW · #8

I bought my SpyderHawk from across the boarder a few weeks ago and didn't have to pay any duties nor was it opened. The seller put "Camping tool" on the shipping slip. It was shipped via USPS.

It seems to be a toss-up on what gets charged duties and what doesn't. Seems some people get charged duty and others don't for the same product. No rhyme or reason to it.

SmoothOne25 · #9

ok hypothetical. i live in nj and want to buy a spyderco for 100 cdn from W and W. i use paypal like it ask and then what just order it? they have ignored me for like a week or two, no return calls. maybe the holiday? haha or boxing day whatever that is. but how do you deal with he other issues, usa lines be crossed? how they ship it, the custom or border guards, the arrival or sender plus the fees? they wont answer but they are the only one that has it

any body know them? vouch for them. direct line?

FLYBYU44 · #10

SmoothOne25 wrote:ok hypothetical. i live in nj and want to buy a spyderco for 100 cdn from W and W. i use paypal like it ask and then what just order it? they have ignored me for like a week or two, no return calls. maybe the holiday? haha or boxing day whatever that is. but how do you deal with he other issues, usa lines be crossed? how they ship it, the custom or border guards, the arrival or sender plus the fees? they wont answer but they are the only one that has it any body know them? vouch for them. direct line?

I can vouch for Jay, I've bought probably at least 10 knives from him recently (one about a week ago) with zero issues so far. I did have one blade that had a cosmetic problem with it when I received it. I emailed him and it took him about a day to get back to me, he made it right and I got a bit of a bonus as well for my troubles. As far as getting the knife to you, it really isn't an issue, I ship knives to you fellows all the time, it's super easy. You may have to pay duty on it when you get it, but likely you won't have to. I don't have a direct line for Jay, last time I just used the contact email on his website. It's right after Christmas and he likely just had a ton of orders come in with the boxing day sale, so it may take him a while to return your emails.

NaturalMystic · #11

skunk_2 wrote:ive ordered from knifecenter and newgraham to canada, both twice, and havnt had any problems customs wise, but have had to pay duty when they show up here. sometimes a lot!
-side question! is duty more on a knife made in japan than in Colorado? because it certainly seems the case, but its just might be coincidence.

Hey skunk, I may be wrong but I believe that due to the free trade agreement, all products made in the US and Mexico are supposed to be duty free when entering Canada. I guess the trick is to have the seller place a note advising that it is an American made product if it is a Golden Colorado made Spydie.

skunk_2 · #12

NaturalMystic wrote:Hey skunk, I may be wrong but I believe that due to the free trade agreement, all products made in the US and Mexico are supposed to be duty free when entering Canada. I guess the trick is to have the seller place a note advising that it is an American made product if it is a Golden Colorado made Spydie.

that defiantly sounds right! most of what i have bought have been Japanese blades, delica, caly3, moran, byrds. now that i think about it, i dont have a golden model!

NaturalMystic · #13

LOL, yeah I don't think I have a Golden made model either. Doesn't really matter to me though. I love the models I have. As long as the quality, fit & finish, etc are there it doesn't really matter where it was made to me. That being said I think all the models I have were made in Japan. See my sig "Caly3 G10, Delica SE, Delica4 PE, Salt 1, Ladybug1, Ladybug2, Ladybug H1, Dragonfly FRN, Dragonfly G10, Jester, Bug, Honeybee."

I'm now about to call my buddy at a local knife shop here in TO to see if he still has any Caly3s left. I got my last one (G10/VG10) from him and wanna snag another before they're gone. I don't know what they're replacing with, if anything, and I'm not crazy about the CF version at all.

FIMS · #14

^What shop do you use?

NaturalMystic · #15

Hey FIMS, I see you're in my neck of the woods huh? If I'm buying locally I usually go to S & R Knives in Woodbine Mall. They're just a few stores down from the Sears on the upper level. S & R stands for Sean and Rodney. I usually deal with Rodney but both are really nice guys. BTW if you're into flashlights they also carry the full line of Fenix lights now (possibly since I recommended them a year or two ago).

The other store I deal with is on Dufferin (East side) near Orfus Rd, a place called Beaver Surplus. Larry Beaver is the owner and is also a really nice guy. They sell mostly military surplus stuff there.

To be honest though I do a lot of my knife and gadget shopping online but Rodney is usually willing to give a fair price. I try to support my local stores but a lot of the time the price difference is so great that I have to go online.

That being said though, I went by S & R this afternoon to grab a 2nd G10 Caly3 and also ended up getting a 2nd H1 Ladybug Salt for my wife and a Pacific Salt for my dad. I got all three knives for $248 taxes in but don't know if that's a good deal or not.

NaturalMystic · #16

Oh BTW to go back to your original post question, I've never had customs seize a knife ordered from outside of Canada. I ordered my two Benchmade Mini Griptilians from Tactical Supply, my Ritter Mini Grip from Aeromedix, plus most of my other knives from other online stores like Knives Ship Free and others.
Tactical Supply and Aeromedix both tightened the pivot screws on the Grips at my request, before shipping them to me.
Funny thing is when I ordered my RAT Cutlery knives from KnivesShipFree I got dinged by customs on one order and the next order a week later didn't get dinged anything. I suppose it's hit or miss. I'm just glad I've never had anything seized.

jzmtl · #17

Yeah it's pretty much a crap shoot as far as customs goes. But generally higher the value/more expensive shipping method, the more likely you'll get nailed.

sixheads · #18

I bought a lum from the center and when i recived it it had been opened , then there was shipping costs extra to pick it up and there was a duty. Never again i use warriors, or SandR Knives.

FIMS · #19

NatMystic,

Ive been dealing with S&R for a long time and know Sean and Randy very well. Alot of guys from my service shop there and the walk in cash paid prices are amazing.

Im in the Jane/Finch area so I will go by Beaver Surplus one of these days since it is not very far.

NaturalMystic · #20

sixheads wrote:I bought a lum from the center and when i recived it it had been opened , then there was shipping costs extra to pick it up and there was a duty. Never again i use warriors, or SandR Knives.

Hey sixheads, where abouts are you located and why won't you use S&R again? Bad experience? I had them ship me my first Caly3 back around Nov last yr to my work address as a next day delivery and didn't have any issues receiving it.

As FIMS just mentioned also, their walk in cash prices are also pretty good so I'm not sure why you're discontent with them.

Hey FIMS, yeah I've been dealing with them for at least 10 yrs or so too. Nice guys. What service are you in? LEO, EMS?
I'm at Yonge & Eglinton but will be moving to 'sauga in Feb.
Nice to meet you!