Karaoke Forums

Hello everyone, great forum!

Thanks to those posting where good CD+g deals can be had; I'm really tempted to order some stuff, but I'm in Toronto, Canada and have never ordered stuff from the U.S. before. Primarily because I'm never sure how much I'll end up really paying after being hit with customs, duties, taxes, and brokerage fees (welcome to Canada, eh)! The last time someone sent us a gift of $20 chocolates from Switzerland, we we ended up paying $30 in brokerage fees, customs, etc etc.!

So, I'm wondering if anyone here has experience with how much would I be really paying at the end of the day for something ordered from the U.S to Toronto?

Say for some CD+G's worth US$100, apart from shipping, how much would these be:
customs/duties:
taxes:
brokerage fees:
anything I need to know?

thanks alot!

MikeBgn

ps - oh yes, if you've had any good or bad experiences with any online stores that sell CD+g's at good prices that ship to Toronto, would appreciate to know as well. thanks

Mike that can be a problem. It seems to be the luck of the draw whether you get hit by fees or not. We get our discs through here.

http://www.singerschoice.ca/

We've gotten some music through Ace karaoke but like I said, it's a crap shoot as whether you get hit for fees or not.

_________________
You can be strange but not a stranger

As long as they ship USPS , the US Postal Service, and NOT Fedex, UPS, and the like your brokerage fees will only ever be $5.
The Courier companies gouge you big time on brokerage, as you found out with your Swiss chocolatets. And they will tell you it's because they have to fill out forms, etc, except that it's the shipper that fills out the forms, not them! Complete rip-off in my opinion and I will never use them for that reason.
Most times, Canada post won't even charge you duty or GST on items coming in. It's really a crap shoot whether they do or not, as they just pull random items coming in for duty and GST and not everything gets processed for duty and GST. Must be their paperwork saving program!
Understand, though, that the higher the value of your items, the more likely they WILL bother with the paperwork as the GST you would owe would make it worth it.
As for what you pay for duty, it all depends on whether your items are dutiable. You can check for sure at the Canada Customs website. Just google it and it will come up.
My experience has been that CD's are not dutiable, but don't quote me on that as I could be wrong. Just check the website.

thanks for bringing this topic to bear... I know when I order stuff from the UK, with the dollar difference and the VAT and international shipping, I'm ordering and just going, "oh well" when I think about how much it REALLY will cost! !

Welcome to the site, Mike!

Hi all, thanks for the responses

timberlea: thanks for the link, I'll check them out; good to know there's one in the GTA.
I've been having a good experience so far ordering from
http://www.asapkaraoke.com I think they are in Alberta somewhere

diafel: thanks for the U.S. postal service tip!
The reason I decided to post this question was cause I couldn't figure anything out from the canada customs site; like all things gov't it's convoluted and no simple answers to a simple question. I think they make it vague on purpose so they can slap on whatever they feel like ...there's also something about if it's made in the US or not (whatever that means), etc etc.

knightshow: thanks!

MikeBgn