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May 23, 2022, 12:22:04 AM

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[old man ben]

That sounds pretty good.  The only unknown is whether or not Canada Post zaps you for duty and taxes.  That can be hit or miss in my experience.

[Wedge1021]

That sounds pretty good.  The only unknown is whether or not Canada Post zaps you for duty and taxes.  That can be hit or miss in my experience.

I've done a couple orders from Star Action Figures, and several orders from Amazon UK over the past few years. They have all been shipped by Royal Mail, and none have had taxes added when entering Canada. This is typically my experience when items are shipped from the US as well, via USPS. But any time a courier service is used like UPS, Fedex, DHL, etc I have always gotten hit, both by the taxes and the courier's extortionary "brokerage fee".

I have an order arriving in the next week, will update with how that goes.

[jjreason]

Very informative & useful post, Wedge! I will be adding this place to my bookmarks to check out! 

[Darth Woo]

But any time a courier service is used like UPS, Fedex, DHL, etc I have always gotten hit, both by the taxes and the courier's extortionary "brokerage fee".

I have an order arriving in the next week, will update with how that goes.

This is because to ensure you get your item in time, they will assume that Canada Customs will charge you duty on it then pay Canada Customs on your behalf (and that's where brokerage comes in).  Basically if you want to dispute, then you have to dispute through Canada Customs to prove the item shouldn't have been charged customs, but not sure if you'd be able to get back the brokerage fees.

The other option when you live near the border is to have the shipment stopped at the border and you will 'broker' the item out yourself.  But again, you'll pay duties on it but no brokerage fee.

It's just the way they do business.  For Canadapost, customs inspections are random.   If it catches the officer's eye or comes from a 'drug source country', then they will look at it.  Once they look at it, they will charge you for it, even if they don't open it.  It's basically, it was flagged for 'secondary inspection'.

Also, contrary to what people thing, Canadapost does charge brokerage.  It used to be $10 flat rate, but I don't know what it is now though as I've been lucky and also, I haven't bought much from the US lately.

[Darth Cujo]

But any time a courier service is used like UPS, Fedex, DHL, etc I have always gotten hit, both by the taxes and the courier's extortionary "brokerage fee".

I have an order arriving in the next week, will update with how that goes.

This is because to ensure you get your item in time, they will assume that Canada Customs will charge you duty on it then pay Canada Customs on your behalf (and that's where brokerage comes in).  Basically if you want to dispute, then you have to dispute through Canada Customs to prove the item shouldn't have been charged customs, but not sure if you'd be able to get back the brokerage fees.

The other option when you live near the border is to have the shipment stopped at the border and you will 'broker' the item out yourself.  But again, you'll pay duties on it but no brokerage fee.

It's just the way they do business.  For Canadapost, customs inspections are random.   If it catches the officer's eye or comes from a 'drug source country', then they will look at it.  Once they look at it, they will charge you for it, even if they don't open it.  It's basically, it was flagged for 'secondary inspection'.

Also, contrary to what people thing, Canadapost does charge brokerage.  It used to be $10 flat rate, but I don't know what it is now though as I've been lucky and also, I haven't bought much from the US lately.

The courier companies haven't ever charged me duty. Duty is not charged for action figures, etc. The problem is their exorbitant brokerage fees. All they do is fill out some paperwork and charge you a brokerage fee. UPS is the worst. They base their brokerage fee on the value of the item(s) being shipped. So you can have a small $500 package and a small $20 package. Both items go through the exact same process but UPS will charge waaay more to do the three minutes of paperwork for the $500 item.

I bought the vintage archive book from blue milk and they decided to ship UPS. UPS wanted to charge me a brokerage fee and tax based on the wrong amount. They were going to charge me about $40 in brokerage fees on a $60us item. I phoned to complain and they instantly waived the brokerage fee and I only had to pay the taxes. This was a "one time courtesy". I can only guess they acquiesced so quickly because they know how ridiculous their brokerage fees are.

Canada post is reasonable with their $10 brokerage fee, but I will accept a bit more from others but UPS is just ridiculous.

Anyway, was thinking of trying this star action place. They have some walmart exclusives for preorder. Missing the stormtrooper of course, but they have the bespin guards, gunner and r2. And the 6" gung ho in vintage colors. Tempting to preorder these from them. They don't charge until the item is in stock. If I can be sure they'll ship regular mail and not by courier they look like a viable option for exclusives.

[Wedge1021]

Anyway, was thinking of trying this star action place. They have some walmart exclusives for preorder. Missing the stormtrooper of course, but they have the bespin guards, gunner and r2. And the 6" gung ho in vintage colors. Tempting to preorder these from them. They don't charge until the item is in stock. If I can be sure they'll ship regular mail and not by courier they look like a viable option for exclusives.

They definitely do ship via regular mail, and it comes with a tracking number too. When you go to the first checkout screen, select "Canada" and the shipping will automatically come up as "Royal Mail Airmail". In fact, this currently seems to be the ONLY way they will ship to Canada, and only for subtotal values less than about £135. Once your total goes over that, you can't select a shipping option for Canada. It looks like they also use DHL, but only for European addresses.

Another note for shopping with them: they don't let you group pre-order items that have release dates too far apart from each other. For my orders, I just did some trial and error groupings based on release dates and subtotals, and was able to make 3 orders that will ship a couple months after each other, all maxed as close to the £135 subtotal as possible.

Oh, and they take good care with their packaging. They care about collectors, unlike Amazon, Walmart, etc.

[Darth Cujo]

Thanks Wedge, that's all really useful info. I actually noticed the grouping limitations last night while checking them out. It makes sense. Of course they are at hasbro's mercy for release times but keeping items grouped into a couple months release date window makes sense.

They don't seem to let you combine in stock items with preorders as well. Or at least preorders that are to far out.

Thanks again for the info and for pointing them out.

[Eradicator]

I got screwed on the Blue Milk book as well. UPS is terrible. As soon as I saw they were shipping UPS I knew it would be a problem

[Wedge1021]

I got screwed on the Blue Milk book as well. UPS is terrible. As soon as I saw they were shipping UPS I knew it would be a problem

I saw about that in the comments on their Kickstarter page. They said that shouldn't have been happening. That's the thing with these courier companies - you're already paying extra up front to ship the thing, then they turn around and screw you on the back end too. It must be frustrating for sellers who get to deal with the complaints from their customers.

I had also ordered the Blue Milk book, but luckily had the slipcase in my order too. So mine was one of the last ones to ship out. By this time they had switched to using USPS for their international orders too, after receiving the feedback on UPS shipment problems. Mine's sitting in Toronto as of yesterday, just cleared customs. So hopefully should be arriving by Canada Post in the next week sometime.

[Eradicator]

I had the slipcase as well. Too bad they didn't ship mine USPS. If they do a volume 2 I will be sure to tell them not to ship UPS, but they may have learned their lesson.

[Wedge1021]

Just a little update. Received my latest shipment from Star Action Figures on Monday, including the VC Droids Boba Fett. Awesome packaging the way I always ship figures myself. Took a little longer in transit this time, but still no extra fees at the post office. Happily waiting for shipment #3 to all come in stock, and will be putting in another pre-order this week.

[old man ben]

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