Selling to Canadians

Generally, my strong recommendation is, stay away from deals to and from Canada.

That being said, it's best if you can use the Post Office to ship, as they throw the least amount of BS at you. Of course, it's not so easy (though possible) to ship larger items though the mail. Things likes tubes and cables are easy due to their small size; that is the only way I would do it.

In my experience, never, never, never ship UPS. Their delivery time is pathetic as stuff hangs in that no man's land of "Customs clearance" for a very long time (can be week, and I've seen months in some cases), the people you deal with on the phone are of no help, and their fees and ticky tack stuff you will wind up with are criminal.

My order of preference for shipping:
1) DON'T DO IT!!!
2) US/Canadian Postal Service
3) FedEX Express/FedEX Ground
4) UPS

I've had no problems shipping to Canada, or Europe. You need to do it through the US Post Office. On the forms you have to fill out you have to declare the value, and the duty will be paid by the buyer when they receive it. It's a smooth transaction after you do it a couple of times, and there's only two or three forms. The postage will be more, I seem to remember about $30.00-$40.00 to send a cable Express Mail.

Chuck

I know there are others who can speak with more authority on your questions, but here's what I know and do:

State your price and require payment in US$ - it eliminates exchange considerations for you.

State in your ad or correspondence that all import fees are the responsibility of the buyer (or negotiate a mutual agreement in advance) so there are no surprises.

Ship via US Mail if possible, it eliminates brokerage fees from coming back to you (also eliminates them entirely as I understand), and leave all duties considerations with the buyer. It's also less expensive usually. If the item is mfg'd in North America the buyer won't have to pay duties anyway. Your import form that you fill out when mailing the item will include origin of the item, and value.

If duties apply, it is a % of the price - I don't recall how much but think it's less than 10%, maybe closer to 5%?

If the item is too large/heavy, USPS won't ship it, then you need to use UPS/Fedex, etc. They use brokers to handle import processing and charge a fee for it. Make sure there's agreement with the buyer on who pays these.

Ask for the money in the currency of your choice.At this moment the US doller is about 5% stronger than the canadian.Most europeans want Euros you are an american get US dollers.Wire transfers cost money usualy to the person recieving the money, ask for extra to cover that or dont supply that option.You read horror stories about canadians refusing to pay brokerage fees or duty and its back charged to the sender.USPS is a great service and at the canadian end the reciever gets a notification slip in the mail and can not pick up the parcel till all dues are payed and unless the parcel is refused at the post office before opening and is returned to sender you have no responsibilitys.

I'm Canadian and have bought numerous items from Americans on Agon. First of all, I pay via payapl in USD so there's no issue there. Also, sellers usually ask me to cover the shipping charge so there's no extra cost to the seller, and finally, if duties and taxes are required once it crosses the border they are the responsibility of the buyer otherwise we can't receive the goods. The only downside that I can see is that you may have to fill in a customs form declaring the value and describing the contents, but that's a minor inconvenience at best. I think if the Canadian buyer has good feedback and is willing to pay your price there's no reason not to sell to them.