At 10:01 AM 2/7/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Greetings from Elmira Ontario
>
>I need a a bit of advice from the members north of the lower 48. V.B. sent
>meself a flier reducing a fair number of items, a bunch I could use. Even
>with the big difference in US to CDN dollar I stand to save a nice amount.
>My question is will I be taking alot of crap from the Customs Nazis, or does
>UPS take most of the hassle out of the process. The folks I deal with in
>Canada do a good job for me but some of V.B.'s prices are too good to pass
>on. Could use a few words of help.
>
Bob,
If at all possible do NOT use UPS for anything shipped across the border.
They tack on an unrealistic service charge for crossing the border. I've
been stung before. So much so that on some small parts I've bought from
fellow listers, the service charge/ shipping was more than the cost of the
parts. I could have bought new parts locally for less. If possible have
the shipper use the US mail. Canada Post charges $5 for the cross-border
handling.
I don't have my atlas close at hand so I'll have to plead ignorance about
Elmira. How far from the border are you? If you can justify the drive to
the south you'll probably find a UPS depot in one of the small towns that
hug the border. I have just such a place in Blaine WA which will receive
parcels, then phone me and wait for up to 60 days for me to show up. They
charge $2 US for small packages, $5 for large.
There are usually small border towns just north or south of any large
metropolitan area on the other side. Call the chamber of commerce in a
likely spot and find out if they have something like this.
If your planning on only one large package then UPS may work for you but if
you have a constant trickle of parts comming in from the US the UPS service
charges will eventually break you.
Another advantage to doing it this way is very often the border guards will
just wave me through when I tell them I have $XX worth of vintage car parts.
On larger orders they want their pound of flesh but that is GST only; no
duty on vintage car parts. "Vintage" to Canada Customs means 25 years or
more old. Bring your registration. I've only been asked for proof of the
cars age once but they weren't going to let me go as vintage till I showed
them the parts. Most TC parts are fairly obviously "vintage".
Good Luck!
Cheers, eh!
Ross
`66 GT & `47 TC
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