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2023 Official Holiday Raffle Thread
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Started by The Sledder,

1,174 posts in this topic

stormflora

stormflora

Posted
Posted (edited)
On 12/27/2023 at 8:42 AM, 1Cool said:

Isn't it the law in Canada that you claim the cost of each item that comes into the country so they can tax you?  Saying certain packages under a certain size probably won't be opened isn't exactly screaming that people should follow the law or most of what you posted would be moot.  I'm not Canadian but I always post the actual price of books on Canadian packages for my own piece of mind.

Yes, but I did not inform anyone to understate the value of any of the contents. Just to list the contents and package them in a certain way.

On 12/27/2023 at 12:19 PM, William-James88 said:

I get wanting to write the full price for insurance purposes but I hope you also state it's a "used" book though as the taxes on used items is much less since the items were originally taxed when purchased new . 

Good point brought up, which I've forgotten to note. Indeed, used items are far more lenient with customs than new ones (and you wouldn't want to be claiming that some pre-Modern Age comics are new either). Canadian customs expects you to post the fair market value/selling price, not the actual MSRP of each item. If you truly did buy/sell an item at $0 (it was a gift/freebie/whatever), you must clearly state that.

Customs would actually prefer you designated a PS5 as being given away at $0 rather than sold as $20, as they interpret it as a gift. However, marking any item as $0 or less than MSRP also means that for parcel insurance purposes (if it really ever comes down to it), you cannot actually claim more than the declared total value of the parcel. (This is the main reason why it is bad to understate unless you are willing to eat the difference in the middle from doing so, if you ever do need to make a claim.) Even if you buy $1,000 in insurance, if you only declare a parcel as being worth $200, the logistics company will only give you $200 (after a likely long processing time).

Understating the value of a parcel has its pros and cons, and the customs are usually too busy to care enough to physically open up a box to verify most parcels unless they trigger red flags. The pro is that (obviously) you save on duties/taxes, but the con is that if the parcel is stolen/lost and you need to make a claim, you take both a financial and a psychological hit. Whether or not it is a viable tactic boils down to several factors, including but not limited to how consistent/reliable a logistics service and source/destination country handling is. (Personally, I usually don't mind understating own parcels unless the contents are simply too valuable to lose. But I factor that into the cost equation.)

In my experience, customs are usually generous enough to charge you less duties/taxes than expected to begin with, often a 30-50% discount in actuality compared to what is officially stated on the government website. Declaring a proper value also pressures the logistics company and customs to properly deliver your parcel, as they want to avoid taking losses as well from any claims made.

Thefts or "supposed losses" tend to happen with high value items that are tempting for crooks to target, like jewellery/currency, consoles/computer hardware, etc. In those cases, it can actually be better to make the declaration of the contents ambiguous: Instead of writing "Used GPU", you might want to write "Used Computer Part". Or instead of "Action Comics #1", you'd write "Used Comic Book".

Edited by stormflora
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s-man

s-man

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On 12/27/2023 at 10:35 PM, fmaz said:

Form submitted. I TRIED to only rank up to my pick (#44), but leaving a task partially finished like that makes my brain itch... so I ranked to the end. :facepalm:

So did I, and I got first pick!! :tonofbricks:

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wombat

wombat

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Posted
On 12/27/2023 at 10:35 PM, fmaz said:

Form submitted. I TRIED to only rank up to my pick (#44), but leaving a task partially finished like that makes my brain itch... so I ranked to the end. :facepalm:

That is psychotic. Just sayin. 

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Ryan.

Ryan.

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On 12/28/2023 at 7:34 AM, shadroch said:

The #1 draft pick is usually known well in advance. I don't see why you can't announce what you'll pick.

I already know what @s-man is picking. He's started negotiating the contract with the top pick.

I can announce the #2 pick but it's @The Sledder call if we want to start announcing before draft day.

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fmaz

fmaz

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On 12/28/2023 at 1:58 AM, wombat said:

That is psychotic. Just sayin. 

My wife says it’s a form of OCD - to which I replied, “the adorable kind?” - to which she rolled her eyes and walked away.   So I believe that is confirmation that it is, indeed, the adorable kind. 

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fmaz

fmaz

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On 12/27/2023 at 10:45 PM, s-man said:

So did I, and I got first pick!! :tonofbricks:

:grin:  Yeah, I don’t think EVEN I would have done THAT. I think if I’d gotten the first pick, I’d have found out what Greggy’s favorite charity is, made a donation, and been done with it. At least I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have still ranked all the items… hm

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s-man

s-man

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On 12/28/2023 at 8:45 AM, fmaz said:

:grin:  Yeah, I don’t think EVEN I would have done THAT. I think if I’d gotten the first pick, I’d have found out what Greggy’s favorite charity is, made a donation, and been done with it. At least I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have still ranked all the items… hm

I was actually joking, I'm not quite that OCD, except when it comes to pizza toppings.

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ADAMANTIUM

ADAMANTIUM

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On 12/28/2023 at 8:26 AM, s-man said:
On 12/28/2023 at 7:45 AM, fmaz said:

Yeah, I don’t think EVEN I would have done THAT. I think if I’d gotten the first pick, I’d have found out what Greggy’s favorite charity is, made a donation, and been done with it. At least I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have still ranked all the items… hm

I was actually joking, I'm not quite that OCD, except when it comes to pizza toppings.

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jlouque

jlouque

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On 12/27/2023 at 9:35 PM, fmaz said:

Form submitted. I TRIED to only rank up to my pick (#44), but leaving a task partially finished like that makes my brain itch... so I ranked to the end. :facepalm:

I ranked the entire list and submitted before the elves drew names.  That is how I knew there was a prize missing originally.  I overthink everything!  :) 

 

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stormflora

stormflora

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Two massive boxes of Tom & Jerry comics arrived from my forwarder in the USA today, which will take me a while to sort through.

Wife scolded me a few days ago for spending some $4K+ USD on these comics lol. Yikes.

But at least it's better than spending $4K on one or two individual key comics :P

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