Are the Canadian buyers back??

[lizards2]

I bought my first book in months.

this ain't baseball, lawrence.

[blazingbob]

I was waiting for "It is all about the oil".

 

Canadian currency is impacted by commodities.

 

[piper]

I was waiting for "It is all about the oil".

 

Canadian currency is impacted by commodities.

 

If Oil prices go up, so will the Canadian dollar.

 

My spending has dropped because of house renovations...

[Fan Boy]

On a boardie recommendation I signed up for a US address and man has that saved me a ton of money. So many retailers in the States ship for free (or nearly) that paying a few bucks CDN for the mail forward has been phenomenal, I just got a box with 10 books from CGC, 2 books from Rich Henn, a couple of eBay purchases, a couple of boardie purchases for a total of $60 CDN. (CGC alone would charge $75 US to ship 10 books up here!)

 

Good to see you are saving bit of money there. How was the trip back into Canada through customs?

 

I am expecting to pick up my parcels this weekend over the border. I think I should be getting about 60 books or that.

 

 

I use these guys: http://crossborderpickups.ca/ so I don't even have to make the trips myself. Thus far (couple of months, probably 25 shipments) it's been wicked. The address is in Niagara Falls, NY - they get the boxes, send an email asking what's in it and value, and take care of everything else. If you're on the west end of Toronto, you can even go pick up your boxes at their warehouse in Mississauga. I'm on the east end and literally do one giant shipment a month - they'll consolidate everything into one box, slap an Expedited Parcel label on it, and bam, at my place in 24hrs.

 

I was referred to them by boardie Captain Canuck and it's really helped. The eBay GSP is no longer a factor in determining what I won't buy and it's so great to adjust the shipping calculator with a zip code on others -- and see $35 shipping become $4!

 

Given all the threads lately about importing to Canada, shipping to Canada, etc, it might not be a bad idea for others to chime in with what they use and maybe one of the veteran guys can create a sticky? I'm sure there are multiple options to do what this service does (maybe even better ones!)

 

 

That link you posted, do look good. Too bad it is only in Mississauga, not of any other locations in BC. For now, I am fine with my U.S. address in Blaine and the round trip is only 60-70 mins max.

 

Maybe when this business grows, they might add more locations in other provinces?

 

At the moment, the exchange rate is 1.34 so, I am good to go buy few more comics!

[comicwiz]

Makes sense people are buying in person.

 

Describes nearly 90% of my buying activity in the last year.

 

[the blob]

It is ridiculous how the rates have gone up. I can ship a book to Hawaitt, a billion miles away, for under $4, but it costs $15 to go to Toronto, which I can drive to in an afternoon?

 

It's because Hawaii is a US state. But you knew that.

 

 

Except that 15 years ago there was much less of a difference price-wise in the shipping.

[the blob]

The exchange rate is currently a few percent lower than the average rate for the last 25 years. The only buyers who believe the rate is so bad are those who convinced themselves the dollar is supposed to be at the historical high it was 4-5 years ago.

 

Maybe some Canadians took advantage of the high dollar and moved on. I don't see why anyone buying for more than the last 5 years would have stopped. They also may have purchased more when they had more power via the exchange to do so.

 

The GSP continues to be a pain.

 

Right, y'all had a year or two blip and got used to it. I remember back around 1999/2000 or so Curry's art supply in canada had it 2 for $1. The prices were canadian, so if something was $20, it would be $10 american. I used to have time to paint and seriously considered loading up on a palette of canvases and other supplies because it was so cheap and the shipping to NYC was pretty decent too. Of course, gas was like 94 cents a gallon then, so that probably explains why.

[VintageComics]

It is ridiculous how the rates have gone up. I can ship a book to Hawaitt, a billion miles away, for under $4, but it costs $15 to go to Toronto, which I can drive to in an afternoon?

 

It's because Hawaii is a US state. But you knew that.

 

 

Except that 15 years ago there was much less of a difference price-wise in the shipping.

 

15 years ago Federal governments weren't as interested as going after people's wallets as they are today.

 

I'd bet that one of the reasons things are so much more expensive going out of country is that it's the government's way of applying a levy on outgoing goods. They've tightened up on anything that has to do with finances and borders.

 

It'd be interesting to see the breakdown of exactly why expenses have increased for shipping out of country but I'd be surprised if it didn't have something to do with the above.

 

 

[topofthetotem]

I bought my first book in months.

this ain't baseball, lawrence.

Everything is baseball, even when its not.

via GIPHY

[ThothAmon]

Hearing anecdotally that Canadian customs is also getting more aggressive? Move towards liberalism can't be cheap.

[VintageComics]

Hearing anecdotally that Canadian customs is also getting more aggressive?

 

It's my experience that as the digital age allows governments to close all loopholes, all governments are stepping up revenue collection.

 

Whether it's taxes, money laundering, etc. They are all clamping down on it, whether it's in the US or Canada or elsewhere.

[romanheart]

Hearing anecdotally that Canadian customs is also getting more aggressive?

 

It's my experience that as the digital age allows governments to close all loopholes, all governments are stepping up revenue collection.

 

Whether it's taxes, money laundering, etc. They are all clamping down on it, whether it's in the US or Canada or elsewhere.

 

They can attempt to poilce and tax the packages for 40 million people but can't stop offshore accounts or jail inside traders.

 

[VintageComics]

Hearing anecdotally that Canadian customs is also getting more aggressive?

 

It's my experience that as the digital age allows governments to close all loopholes, all governments are stepping up revenue collection.

 

Whether it's taxes, money laundering, etc. They are all clamping down on it, whether it's in the US or Canada or elsewhere.

 

They can attempt to poilce and tax the packages for 40 million people but can't stop offshore accounts or jail inside traders.

 

 

You make it sound like they are doing one but not the other. It's not 'all or nothing'.

 

As technology increases they are clamping down on everything, each in it's own time.

 

You don't think they're trying to get at those off shore accounts? It's been on the news.

[comicquant]

Hearing anecdotally that Canadian customs is also getting more aggressive?

 

It's my experience that as the digital age allows governments to close all loopholes, all governments are stepping up revenue collection.

 

Whether it's taxes, money laundering, etc. They are all clamping down on it, whether it's in the US or Canada or elsewhere.

 

They can attempt to poilce and tax the packages for 40 million people but can't stop offshore accounts or jail inside traders.

 

 

While it takes getting use to, governments could be a lot more intrusive if they wanted to. If you prefer to import something you're going to pay for it. One of the biggest issues the U.S. has right now is too much is imported (comics excluded). The U.S. and Canada both are actually very lax compared to most, especially Europe. I use to travel to Germany for work and right before every trip I'd get an email from my colleagues asking if they could have something shipped to me and bring it across the pond. I think the default VAT rate was 19% and could be more or less depending on the item. But as Roy suggested its going to get worse because they aren't going to leave easy revenues on the table.

[the blob]

Having a customs agent spending an hour or two collecting a $15 duty is not easy revenue.

 

Reminds me of the Barclays Center subway stop in Brooklyn. THREE police officers hide behind a door hanging out and looking through a peephole to bust someone jumping the turnstile. Each police officer easily costs the city of New York $200-300K a year once we get into pensions and benefits considering they can start at 22 and retire at 42 with a full pension or something along those lines (g-d bless them, of course..)

 

How many tickets could they possibly write to justify this cost?

 

And if they just stood on the other side of the door in plain sight nobody would jump the turnstile.

[comicquant]

Having a customs agent spending an hour or two collecting a $15 duty is not easy revenue.

 

Reminds me of the Barclays Center subway stop in Brooklyn. THREE police officers hide behind a door hanging out and looking through a peephole to bust someone jumping the turnstile. Each police officer easily costs the city of New York $200-300K a year once we get into pensions and benefits considering they can start at 22 and retire at 42 with a full pension or something along those lines (g-d bless them, of course..)

 

How many tickets could they possibly write to justify this cost?

 

And if they just stood on the other side of the door in plain sight nobody would jump the turnstile.

 

I don't think its that inefficient and I can guarantee you won't find a country on the map who wouldn't jump at the ability to pay a national's wages from revenues generated by imported consumer goods. Its essentially a single level sin tax.

[VintageComics]

Having a customs agent spending an hour or two collecting a $15 duty is not easy revenue.

 

Do you think they only collect $15 an hour in taxes?

 

I don't know how many packages one agent assesses in an hour but I'm betting it's lots of packages.

 

They inspect all packages that pass through their hands. Some are actually declared at the proper amount and I'm betting revenue approaches well into the millions annually. It's not just play money we're talking about.

 

I drove through a border crossing (back into Canada) and asked the agent what the largest declaration he'd ever had was. It was a massive RV that the owner was prepared to pay about $2MIL in taxes on IIRC.

 

But they will employee officers to catch those that don't declare properly. That is the nature of law enforcement economics. The losses are almost always caused by the need to enforce those that don't abide by it.

 

To put it short, if everyone did things properly, it would save everyone a lot of money.

 

 

[VintageComics]

You can Google fiscal statements for US and Canadian customs financial statements and read them if you want to bore yourself silly.

 

They operate in the billions of dollars.

 

https://www.cbp.gov/sites/default/files/documents/CBP_DHS_2014%20PAR_508C.PDF

 

http://www.cbsa-asfc.gc.ca/agency-agence/reports-rapports/fs-ef/2015/dpr-rpp-eng.html

[the blob]

Do you think they only collect $15 an hour in taxes?

 

I don't know how many packages one agent assesses in an hour but I'm betting it's lots of packages.

 

They inspect all packages that pass through their hands. Some are actually declared at the proper amount and I'm betting revenue approaches well into the millions annually. It's not just play money we're talking about.

 

---------------

 

 

I'm not talking about the revenue in general. Sure, there's plenty of easy money from trade and big stuff where people declare it anyway.

 

I'm talking about getting some package valued at $10 on the customs form that would have nothing due and the agent decides this is a $150 item and $15 is due (I don't know what the numbers actually are). I'm guessing opening it up, deciding it is undervalued, filling out the paperwork, getting the person to pay the fee, etc. etc. costs far more in agent time/benefits/overhead than what is collected.

 

 

[VintageComics]

I'm talking about getting some package valued at $10 on the customs form that would have nothing due and the agent decides this is a $150 item and $15 is due (I don't know what the numbers actually are). I'm guessing opening it up, deciding it is undervalued, filling out the paperwork, getting the person to pay the fee, etc. etc. costs far more in agent time/benefits/overhead than what is collected.

 

1st off, it's a branch of law enforcement. So they're not only looking for revenue, they're looking for illegal stuff. But if it wasn't able to be profitable, do you think they'd continue to do it?

 

How long does it take to open a box and inspect it, click, click, click on some software, print out an invoice and done? A couple of minutes?