How much to ship to Canada?

[erwin1978]

I need to ship something from US To Canada but I haven't decided whether to send via USPS or UPS. Can someone explain to me the process of international shipping with either service? Give me a heads-up on which would be the least expensive. If I ship UPS, what exactly do I pay? So I pay extra fees on top of what UPS charges me? How much is customs, duty or whatever they charge? You guys know of any tricks to lower my cost?

I'm shipping a Sega Dreamcast with 10 games and I figure it weighs roughly 10 lbs. If I use UPS would it be cheaper if I pack it myself rather than ask them to do it and use their packing material?

[amd_man2005]

Re: How much to ship to Canada?

Ship it USPS. Mark it/say it is a gift, and there will be no customs charge. Pretty easy.

[casecutter]

Re: How much to ship to Canada?

USPS but DO NOT mark it as a gift or it will sit in customs for a long time. Just send it as merchandise with a low customs value. Anything under $40 usually does not get hit with customs fees. It all depends on the size and weight on how badly customs will inspect it. Make certain to clearly mark what is inside it. I would mark the customs form "Defective Item: Sega Dreamcast/software" value $25. That should get through no problem and even if they have a bug up their ass that day, a $10-15 fee is the absolute max they could get. And the Canadian that is getting the package should already be aware of how bad CanadaPost and customs is. UPS charges alot more in borkerage fees even for extremely low value stuff except if the value is under $20 and the weight is under 1lb.