Buying an item from Canada

My experience has been that shipping from Canada can be very expensive, usually double what US shipping charges would be.

@trelja ,
As a former UPS employee, I know for a fact that they had/have the highest number of damaged parcels and claims, and the highest fees. Damages are due to the high quota of packages moved per hour.
Can't speak to their service from Canada, except that it was fine for me.

As far as customs fees, Canada seems to be different than other countries delivering to the US. I've purchased many items from UK, Japan, and EU and never paid a fee (VAT). Purchases are from dealers and private sellers.

The cut-off for import into canada, for duties taxes and brokerage fees, is $20cdn. anything over that and you get the whole thing thrown at you.

The same for import into the USA, is $200US. anything valued lower than that just goes through like regular mail.