Loonie the same as the American dollar

[holdfast]

On my way back from fishing I was listening to Rex Murphy (Cross Country Check up)and one of the callers brought up a good point. Why when you go to a bookstore for example Chapters and the price is quoted American and Canadian price. Canadians pay from a third to Half Higher. So he told the sales lady he was going to pay in American money. She said no. I'm thinking that greeting cards and books etc maybe we should pay in American money to prove a point. Now my Question? If I was to order fishing Equipment from E-Bay or Pro Bass (American) what additional costs would there be. What would shipping be say I bought a rod and reel for $100 American. Is there duty also?

[Vanselena]

Costs would be shipping + taxes. If you use UPS or another courier there they would charge a customs brokerage fee of about $30. If it was sent through the USPS then you only pay tax just like here.

[spanky]

and if you bring it through a business you get hit with the same + other tariff charges... fishing reels/rods (6.5%), fishing line (7%), sinkers/lures/nets (6.5%) and other stuff.... and lets be honest, the brokerage they use (either a firm or their own employees) won't ask for a reduction in wages because of the dollar and if you come through customs with a truckload of stuff and most of it is "free/exempt" you'll be questioned on it, the govt loves it's money... but in the meantime with the dollars being at par it means the business' can then make more profit from new wholesale purchases from the U.S. while still recouping lost profits by not lowering retail prices (in comparison to the "new" wholesale price- more profit for the company and more taxes for the govt- wonderful world isn't it?)... so in the end, the worth of the CDN dollar doesn't mean much unless you're buying in the U.S.... wonder how much it would cost for Basspro to go through their entire inventory and "reduce" the price to 10% above the american pricing equivelant?

 

Thankfully i only import car loads of stuff through my business, no long hours of being inspected

[Golfisher]

Canada Post has been tagging me with a brokerage charge of $5 for everything shipped from the US via USPS. Started when I moved to North York from Etobicoke; it hadn't happened before. Still, five bucks is tolerable compared to some of the nightmare stories I heard about UPS.

[Zib]

I was wondering the same thing about bringing goods across the border from the US into Canada. This past Friday I seen a lot of cars with Ontario license plates in store parking lots here in Michigan. I usually only see them on the freeways in Detroit due to all the people in Windsor that work in Michigan but to see so many in the stores made me think that the wait to cross the border just got longer.

[Headhunter]

Ok... here's how you beat this system... if your buying say a book that cost $39.00 CAD and is marked $29.00 US, simply go to the bank or a money exchange place, change your CAD to U.S. and buy the book using U.S. dollars!

Problem solved!

HH