NA » Question for Canadians

Question for Canadians

Mar 11, 2007 at 6:07:46 AM

EVIL OVERLORD
Dain (226)

(Dain Anderson) < Founder >

Posts: 12134 - Joined: 08/14/2006

North Carolina

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Ok, I may be missing something obvious here, but I've wondered this for quite a while now. I see a lot of auctions where shipping to the US is cheaper than Canada, from a Canadian seller?!?

Case in point:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nintendo-N...3QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

$20 shipping to the US, $22 for Canada.

What gives? Am I missing something?

-Dain

Mar 11, 2007 at 6:41:38 AM

Bronty (65)

(Dan M) < Bonk >

Posts: 18758 - Joined: 11/27/2006

Canada

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Originally posted by: Dain

Ok, I may be missing something obvious here, but I've wondered this for quite a while now. I see a lot of auctions where shipping to the US is cheaper than Canada, from a Canadian seller?!?

Case in point:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Nintendo-N...1QQcmdZViewItem

That's just literally the way it is at the post office (sometimes). It can be cheaper to ship to the US than ship to the opposite coast of canada.

If you think about the size of canada vs the population its not too surprising that our postal costs are higher. We are quite spread out as a population, whereas you guys have a major city everywhere. Easier for your postal system to be more efficient and cheaper as a result because its built on a larger scale.

When someone here is sending to the US it just has to get to the border from Canada post's perspective and then its USPS' problem. So that $22 price within canada is all canada post, whereas that $20 price is just the price of getting it to the border and then getting USPS to deliver the rest of the way, basically. And USPS is the more efficient operation so...

$20 shipping to the US, $22 for Canada.

What gives? Am I missing something?

-Dain

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Mar 11, 2007 at 6:47:02 AM

EVIL OVERLORD
Dain (226)

(Dain Anderson) < Founder >

Posts: 12134 - Joined: 08/14/2006

North Carolina

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That makes complete sense -- I wasn't considering the fact that Canada is a *really* large place!

-Dain

Mar 11, 2007 at 7:00:19 AM

Bronty (65)

(Dan M) < Bonk >

Posts: 18758 - Joined: 11/27/2006

Canada

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Really large and really sparsely populated! 90% of the letter traffic would go to the belt within 100 miles of the US (that's where 90% of our population lives) but good lord, it must cost like $50 or something for the post office to deliver that one letter to tuktoyatkuk (sp?) that it only charged you 50c for.

You guys don't have as many remote communities that are costly to deliver to because there's a major city in practically every state so you're never *that* far away from a city. From where I live I could drive due north as far as I wanted and not see another major centre (say 1m ppl) at all (we're talking like 30 hours plus of driving). To the east, I'd have to drive like 12 hours or something to get to calgary as a larger centre. Due south? Seattle, 2 1/2 hours. Portland, 5 hours. Various points in California, 12-24 hours.

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Edited: 03/11/2007 at 07:01 AM by Bronty

Mar 11, 2007 at 11:42:52 AM

Dr. Morbis (30)

(Basil T) < Kraid Killer >

Posts: 2320 - Joined: 10/04/2006

Alberta

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Agreed, but I do have a problem with Canadapost's slot system. If something doesn't fit through their 20mm testing slot, the price jumps from $2.55 to send it cross-country to around $8 and up with NO in-betweens. So, for example, it's almost impossible to send a loose Atari cart across Canada for under $8. USPS, on the other hand, have slowly incrementing prices from standard letter-sized mail on up - just the way it should be. Sending a loose Atari cart to the US (from Canada) is about $4.95, or roughly half of the cost to send the same item domestically. To me, that's just ridiculous.

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My mantra, as worded by SamSpade on 06/12/12:

I don't resell to fund my collection, I don't treat this hobby like a second job, I don't care if my collection is worth ten bucks or ten thousand because I never plan on selling it. Seriously, what does the value have to do with anything if you never plan on selling? Speculation doesn't mean jack shit to me at this point, I just want to play my nes games...

Mar 11, 2007 at 1:17:30 PM

the_wizard_666 (157)

(The Fat Ninja) < Wiz's Mom >

Posts: 11676 - Joined: 10/12/2006

Alberta

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I sent a loose Atari cart to Edmonton (3-4 hours north...3 hours for normal people, 4 hours for Basil

), and it cost me almost $9 to ship it. I could've got someone to drive me up there and personally deliver it and it would've cost less than that!

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"It's always amazing to me how some of the most worthless games from a gaming perspective tend to fetch outrageous amounts of money. But then again, it could be said that something is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I'm curious if the high bidder of the $873.04 Stadium Events (cart-only) realizes that it's nowhere nearly as rare as about 20+ games I can think of that sell for 1/10th that amount? At any rate, I wanted to draw attention to this trend: if people say it's rare, it must be true, and therefore it must be had at any price."
-Dain Anderson, October 14, 2006

Originally posted by: kryptk33p3r

im used to dick jokes i get to see one everytime I pee

Mar 11, 2007 at 2:53:47 PM

Bronty (65)

(Dan M) < Bonk >

Posts: 18758 - Joined: 11/27/2006

Canada

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Oh I totally agree that there are plenty of reasons to criticize canada post. I do think it is kind of a tough operation to run though. It could definitely be improved, there's no question. It also pisses me off how hard it is to get a tracking number on certain packages without being charged an arm and a leg.

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Mar 11, 2007 at 6:34:41 PM

Braveheart69 (222)

(AKA BLACKBOXY) < Wiz's Mom >

Posts: 10660 - Joined: 12/29/2006

Washington

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LOL! When I went to ship Jordan's trade package I asked for delivery confirmation and the USPS laughed and told me it wasn't available because Canada's post office stinks. The lady went so far as to say it will be hard to setup because she thinks packages going to Canada just sit around for awhile until someone up there decides to do something with them, could be days or weeks. OUCH!!

Humn... a certain song comes to mind... "Blame Canada, Blame Canada...."
LMAO!

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Mar 11, 2007 at 7:00:49 PM

Bronty (65)

(Dan M) < Bonk >

Posts: 18758 - Joined: 11/27/2006

Canada

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Originally posted by: Braveheart69

LOL! When I went to ship Jordan's trade package I asked for delivery confirmation and the USPS laughed and told me it wasn't available because Canada's post office stinks. The lady went so far as to say it will be hard to setup because she thinks packages going to Canada just sit around for awhile until someone up there decides to do something with them, could be days or weeks. OUCH!!

Humn... a certain song comes to mind... "Blame Canada, Blame Canada...."

LMAO!

LOL yeah "Blame Canada" is an all time classic

I think a big part of the delay is customs though (which also stinks here). And that's not really true about not being able to get tracking - some USPS employees say that but its not really true - you can get it but only if you send global express

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Edited: 03/11/2007 at 07:01 PM by Bronty

Mar 12, 2007 at 6:27:05 AM

the_wizard_666 (157)

(The Fat Ninja) < Wiz's Mom >

Posts: 11676 - Joined: 10/12/2006

Alberta

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The funny shit is when you give a US buyer a tracking number and they say the package doesn't exist because it doesn't turn up on the USPS site. Of COURSE it doesn't...the tracking number is only good if you input it on Canada Post's website

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Originally posted by: kryptk33p3r

im used to dick jokes i get to see one everytime I pee

Mar 12, 2007 at 10:36:44 AM

Bronty (65)

(Dan M) < Bonk >

Posts: 18758 - Joined: 11/27/2006

Canada

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LOL yeah, that cracks me up. Or when you tell the person that you sent it canada post and they ask what website to track it on (the canada post site maybe...??).

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