Forwarding components from US to Canada

[vainglorious11]

Hi all,

As a Canadian, I am incredibly jealous of the current newegg.com deal here:

Phenom II X3 and Asus 790GX Mobo for $200 + free shipping That is the exact combo I've chosen for my build.

Compare to $400 from newegg.ca, or $373 from NCIX.com (mobo on sale). No brainer, right? $200 USD is only $225 CAD.

BUT...Newegg.com doesn't deliver internationally. I found a business that will forward from a US address to Canada - shipito.com.

Cost is $8.50/pkg + normal FedEx/USPS fees (based on weight, I estimate about $35). I'll probably have to pay customs (13% of purchase value = $30) as well, which brings the grand total to about $305.

That's still $75 off my best price, and it includes a free HDMI cable (yay?). I would prefer to shop local for several reasons, but $75 is $75.

Does anybody see a reason not to do this? The only potential problem I can see is trouble with RMAs, and I don't *expect* any problems that Newegg would cover. Has anybody used Shipito or a service like it before?

 

[vainglorious11]

New complication: I may not be able to *pay* at newegg with a Canadian credit card or bank account, even if I change my billing address. Eff.

 

[Paperdoc]

I don't remember if Newegg will allow you to pay with Paypal. If so, you should be able to establish (if you have not already) a Paypal account that actually charges to your Canadian VISA card, and get Newegg to accept Paypal payment.

I'm lucky. I live 40 minutes from the US border where there's a business in the USA that will accept parcels and hold them, charging US$3.00 per package for the service. So I can order items shipped to the USA only - I try to co-ordinate and do several orders for arrival at the same time - and then make a quick trip down for pickup. I take possession in the USA and import them into Canada through Canada Customs, paying any duty (usually none) and sales taxes. To simplify, I make sure I take with me (for presentation to Canada Customs) copies of the original invoices to establish prices. If I work it right, I start the trip down with a low gas tank, fill up there at cheaper prices, and partially offset the cost of gas consumed by the reduced price of a full tank.

 

[Paperdoc]

Newegg.com still will NOT ship outside the USA, no matter how you pay. So for a Canadian customer, we have two fundamental choices. One is to have the goods shipped to an American address, find a way to pay Newegg.com that they will accept, and separately arrange a way to get the goods from the original USA address to the ultimate Canadian destination. The other option is to buy from Newegg.ca in Canadian dollars and have it shipped directly to your door in Canada, which obviously is much simpler. If the two prices are vastly different, though, us Canadians have to choose which way to go.

Or, buy from another company. For example, I recently figured that all out for pre-buying Windows 7. I had to make an assumption about the likely international dollar exchange rate in October, but the bottom line was that buying from a Canadian supplier that will deliver to my door was virtually the same price as buying from Newegg.com and picking it up myself in the USA at a border crossing point. Newegg.ca did not have that product available.