shipping to good ol canada

Okay, this can get complicated.

A full bike, according to Canada Border Services (formerly Canada Customs and Revenue Agency) should get about 13% duty of the declared value, I believe. UNLESS the bike was made in North America, in which case according to the free trade agreement, there would be no duty. There should also technically be tax applied, GST.

Now, if it's marked as a gift and undervalued, there MIGHT be no duty applied. I recently had a Giant Trance frame shipped to me from Guam (that's right, Guam, in the Pacific, a US protectorate or territory of some sort). The seller marked it as a gift and valued it at $150 (I actually paid US$550 for it on ebay) and I paid ZERO duty or taxes on it. I was lucky.

I had a Rock Shox Reba fork shipped to me from the US, and there was no duty (there is no duty on forks) but I did pay provincial and federal tax (~$50 CAN).

If there is ONE piece of advice I can give, it is this: do NOT ship UPS. Or Fed Ex, or any other courier for that matter. They love to gouge on shipping and especially bogus brokerage fees at the border. Let me give you a for instance: I had an ipod mini shipped to me from the US. They charged $40 shipping via UPS. Then UPS charged $60 in brokerage fees (albeit including tax). Turns out that the ipod was DOA, so I shipped it back. Guess what? Canada Post cost $14 for shipping, including insurance and tracking, and the customs fees are a flat $5, no matter the cost. Shipping US to Canada, go with United States Postal Service, USPS. DO NOT USE A COURIER, unless you want to take a chance on ridiculous brokerage fees. UPS has screwed me over enough.

Even with this advice, it is still hard to say whether or not you'll get hit with taxes, customs fees, etc. It's pretty much a crap shoot. I guess it depends on who is processing your package as it crosses the border. I wish you the best of luck. Personally, I've been very, very lucky, and I've also been very unlucky. You can visit Canada Border Services website, and read through the pdf with gives all the official tarif rates for items of all descriptions. Even then, you might not know how much you'll pay. (In my case, a bike frame should have been charged 5%, but I didn't pay anything in duty.)

Many factors involved here. Is the bike used? Is it made in the USA? If the frame is made in the States, there is no duty charges. The buyer can self clear the frame at customs, thus, avoiding brokerage fees. I am from Canada and have had a package self-cleared into the country. You have to do your home work here. Find out what works. There are a few steps involved with self clearing a package into the Canada. I got a package sent via FED-EX, that I self cleared and it was much faster than USPS, with no major cost increase.

DO NOT SEND UPS. EVER. No matter what the lbs, or shipper tells you. USPS is our friend up north. It takes longer, but equates to a much cheaper final cost. For some reason, most shipppers in the states want to ship UPS, but it is not worth it for Canadian buyers. There is huge brokerage and potential duty fees associated with UPS. Don't take the chance, unless money is not a problem.

If the item is used, definately state that it is. ie: used bike parts for a friend, or used bike frame for a sponsored rider. If the item is new, it is up to you, if you want to state that it is used or not.

themarsvolta55 said:

quick question
delete after i get a good answer, for the server's sake

how much do u think shipping a downhill bike to canada will be?

from the buyer

"i have to factor in duty charges for shipping across the border. they can be
quite steep."

quick and sweet
thanks

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Here are my experiances when shipping to canada. First off unless i really really have to ship there. I would not ship over there. There are to many factors and risks that can go in to play.

Unless you abosutely trust and or know the person you are shipping it to you can do a couple of things. If you are not sure and it's some random buyer then you can take the same steps, but it could be risky.

Carrier.

Yes you could ship USPS, but it's a pain in the ass to get tracking, insurance and everything else to come together if you need to get an investigation done. Since it's not in the US they seem to take a bit longer to get the wheels turning. BASED ON MY EXPERIANCE

UPS well they just plain suck all together for shipping and recieveing, and especially when sending to canada. STAY away from these people if you are planning to ship to canada even if it's 50 dollars cheaper. Also based on my experaince.

Fedex is what I would recommend. For me it has been easy and hassle free so far. if you want to send it as cheap as possible then get a Fedex account you will save up to 60%, this no bullsh!t. You can save a lot by filling in the stuff from home then printing out the infomation and droping it off at kinko's. I learned this when I shipped a frame to Canada, which is what you are trying to do. AND MOST IMPORTANTLY you can track it and see the signature of who signed it. You can't really do that with USPS and UPS well they just suck.

Now as for the fee's:

like I mentioned if you really trust this person or know who you are sending it to then do these steps. If not then it's up to you.

when you are sending the bike, frame, or whatever.. Claim it as a GIFT.,BUT you also have to put the declaration value as low as possible. If it's for you friend then say it's worth 10 dollars. That catch here is that you cannot insure it for anymore than that.
It's kind of hard to declare that it's worth 10 dollars, but want to insure it for a 1000 dollars. Then this will rais the flag and questions will start flying around. JUST CAN'T DO IT.
Now the reason I say if you don't know who it's going to and they say it arrived damaged or they say that someone must have stollen it becuase it was left on my door step, then if you claim insurance. Well you might just only get 10 dollars.

Now the lower the value will determing how low the fees are for customs and things like that.
What you need to do is have the person call around over there and get an idea of what the rate is and base the fees off of that.

When I sold a manitou shock pump to canada the fee's ended up being more than the pump was worth, becuase I declared the original value of 40 dollars. the worst part about it it would cost about as much as a new pump just to send it back. So basically the buyer did not want to pay the fee's and I did not want to pay the shipping back. So we just HAD to consider it a dead package and no body got anything. Well I guess UPS got to keep. Who knows.....

Again for the most part I will won't send to canada anymore for that reason it to much trouble. At the same time if someone really wants you to send the frame then make sure they are willing to pay any and all fee's for what you frame is worth. Let them know up front that they could be paying anywhere from 100 to 200 dollars just in fee's.
If not then just keep trying to sell here in the US.

Kind of long but I hope this helps.

themarsvolta55 said:

what about sending chasiers check or money order... he wants to have them converted into canadian funds

im clueless with this stuff

Click to expand...

Screw that :nono: .....Yeah you could have canadian funds shipped to you, but why?

Just have him ship a money order only. Forget the cashiers check. The money order should be from a bank or post office only. This will ensure that you are getting a proper money order. Also there is no need to have changed to canadian funds so just tell the person to send it in US dollars.

Everything should be under your terms and whateve will make you feel confortable shipping the item. This way you will be sure that you did everything you could to make you feel better when you send it.

So send it your way. If not then it's not worth the worring when you do finally decide to ship the item. and also you don't have to worry about funds.

Also it should not be negotiation about how to ship things or what is eisier for the other person. Just tell how it's going to be and nothing else.

Unless again it is your friend that you know. Then by all means figure something out between the two of you. If not then just follow the above comments i have posted.

Good luck