Topic: Amazon Canada Marketplace

[Touti]

I'm curious about this and I know Seb and Jimmy both use it.  Do you ever buy from places in the states ?  When I look at Canadian stores the prices don't seem that great, at 3.49$ per dvd it's ok if you buy 1 or 2 but if you order 10 I think it comes cheaper to get it from DD.

[RossRoy]

Do you ever buy from places in the states ?

The only place in the US I buy from is RightStuf.com for anime, because they have insane specials about twice a year. Other than that, I don't want to pay the customs charge, so I usually steer clear from out of Canada shops (except Caiman USA (by way of Amazon Marketplace) because they ship each DVD individually, so you never have customs charges.

But I may take a look at DD again. But then, when I checked last night, they were about the same price as a Canadian counterpart (Amazon in this case). ANd with Amazon I would get free shipping, and the certainty of not paying customs.

[Touti]

I think the deal on DD vs Amazon is all about whether we buy at regular price or not.  At regular price, buying from DD has not advantage in my opinion, we'd only save pennies and have to wait for our dvd's at least 2 weeks (often more than that).

I however satisfy my DVD buying compulsion through DD's sales like "Buy 1 get one free" or "Buy 2 box sets and get 1 free".  Unfortunately Amazon.ca don't have big sales like their Amazon.com does.  There is no doubt in my mind though that my last order (which broke my 10$ rule not once, not twice but three times  ) I saved money buying from Amazon compared to what it would have cost me with DD if I had to be customs & Taxes.

[RossRoy]

I was just wondering.. Do you have any idea what the cut-off limit is for customs charges here in Canada?

[Jimmy]

I was just wondering.. Do you have any idea what the cut-off limit is for customs charges here in Canada?

Get ready to laugh this is 20 CAN$.

Eric I bought from many American sellers at marketplace, but the only one that I use for order who are more than one dvd is Caiman for the same reason than Sebastien. I don't think that it's a good idea to buy too many dvd at the same times (my maximum limit is five by order because the shipping equals 17.45$ and that's enough for me).

Don't try the European marketplace if you don't want to be surprise, even if the price looks low, when the conversion is done for the shipping and the dvd the price can be very high. Use the other marketplace (US, UK, GER, Fran and JAP) only if it's the only way to get something.

[Touti]

I was just wondering.. Do you have any idea what the cut-off limit is for customs charges here in Canada?

I don't think the 20$ mentioned by Jimmy is the official legal cut-off, I've had orders from DD well over 100$ delivered to my door without any fees.  Then recently I had to pay customs and taxes on a box that only had 3 movies in it worth around 15$.

My mom order clothes online from an american store, she orders the same thing about twice a year and never had to pay any customs or taxes on it.  On her last delivery the postman requested some fees from her so she asked why she had to pay when she never did before for the exact same items.

Postman's answer was that it depends who's in charge and how many parcels they received from USPS on a given morning.  Some managers will have them process customs fees & taxes on 1 out of 15 shipments, others will make it 1 out of 20, or 25.

I don't know if there's any real rule but in reality it all depends on how the foreman feels.

[RossRoy]

I don't know if there's any real rule but in reality it all depends on how the foreman feels.

Typical! 

[Jimmy]

I don't think the 20$ mentioned by Jimmy is the official legal cut-off, I've had orders from DD well over 100$ delivered to my door without any fees.

"The CBSA collects provincial sales taxes (PST) on most taxable imports valued at over $20CDN entering Québec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. The CBSA also collects Harmonized Sales Taxes (HST) on most taxable imports entering Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick."

"Gifts from friends and relatives, valued at $60CDN or less, are duty and tax exempt."

Post Canada link

[Touti]

They should tell their employees about this

[RossRoy]

They should tell their employees about this

Must be some sort of union pressure campaign.

[Achim]

The cut off amount in Taiwan is around US$100. I feel that's a comfortable amount for me, so that my orders don't get too big. If I should order for around US$150 I usually pay around US$10 in fees.

Although occasionally I just order for more at DeepDiscount, as they usually split up the orders anyway.

[Jimmy]

The limit here is really low, most of the others country of the world are way over our limit. This amount need to be adjust one day, 20$ is nothing now (2 packs of cigarettes cost me more than that...). Something that I can't understand is that we have a treaty of free trade between us and the United States, so no limit is supposed to exist and no taxes are supposed to be charged...

[Touti]

Cigarettes are over 10$ a pack now ? 

Free trade is not about consumers not paying taxes, it's about companies from both countries being allowed to sell in the other country without the governments imposing import/export taxes.

There's no reason the sales taxes shouldn't be charged when you import something unless it's for retail, the same say you pay sales tax when you buy it from the retailer who imported it.

Now about import tax (custom tax), you don't pay it if the product you're importing was made in the united states, I've bought many from the states for my truck and never paid anything but sales tax.  Same with my DVD's, canada post only charges you sales tax because the DVD's we buy were mostly produced in the united states.

[RossRoy]

the DVD's we buy were mostly produced in the united states.

or Mexico, which is part of the treaty too, I think.

[Touti]

Is there something I'm not understanding well with Amazon's marketplace ?  I thought (read it on their site if memory serves) that it had a flat rate shipping of 3.49$.

I was just about to order a DVD from and the shipping is 6.49$.