International Toy Collecting - Experiences?
 

Toyark member Tiberius (one of our Canadian members and a great guy) recently started a discussion about his experience ordering from BigBadToyStore (an American company) from Canada. Much like his discussion, this thread is here to give us an opportunity to share experiences about buying, selling, and trading stuff Internationally. Feel free to share your thoughts, comments, and questions about anything related to your collecting experiences.

Examples of relevant topics:

Have any issues with customs?
How long does it typically take for an item to arrive to you from Australia?
Is shipping from Japan expensive?

You get the idea.

So far every single time I have either traded, or bought from an American brother or sister, it usually takes to 1 week and a half and 2 weeks. One took 2 months but that was due to Christmas rush and my parcel got lost, but was then found.

When I ship into the states, from what I know my parcels to America always arrive quickly. No idea why but I thing USPS is a lot better at handling mail than CP. Sadly, if I am to sell something to an American, it costs me 6 dollars Canadian in shipping to ship ONE MOC MU figure to the states.

I have had no duty fees or of the sort when I have traded or bought something from the states, ever.

The post office told me recently that anything being shipped to Canada over 4 pounds has to be shipped Priority Mail, so that is important to keep in mind. I've also been told that Canadian customs is a lot more tedious than American customs, and they tend to take longer. On my end (as an American) I have to fill out a form along with labeling the package to ship Internationally, and the form asks for the value and type of package being sent, along with a short description. I sent a few LEGO sets a while back and had to say that a small box contained a thousand pieces, and the mail lady couldn't help but laugh. Also, if you can mark something as "gift", I say do it,l but make sure that package is going to someone you know/trust.

I have absolutely no problems shipping to Canada or getting packages from there, other than the usual Canadian customs bottleneck. CP seems to be ok from my own personal experiences, but I know plenty of friends up north who have had some really bad ones involving CP.

Moving further out, shipping across the Atlantic or Pacific can be expensive and sometimes more stressful than staying within one's own continent. So far, I haven't had any issues shipping to Europe or receiving packages from there. As for Japan/Hong Kong, I've never had to ship something there, but everything I've ordered/bought from there has been successful delivered. It takes a lot longer than stuff from Canada or even Europe, though (up to 3-4 weeks depending on the source). But I could just have incredibly good luck when it comes to this.

Yeah, I've found stuff to take 1-2 weeks (usually exactly 2 days short of 2 weeks from the US), and like you, I've always found stuff that I've sent to the states to take less time. The USPS is probably better because they're more accustom to dealing with volume & things in general, and of course because their cities aren't as widespread. That's what I've heard anyway, and I guess it makes sense.

Then when it comes to duties, I've had to pay a couple of times, both of which were from online stores not board members (they were also like 2-300 dollar orders that had to come in large boxes), and it was like 6 & 17 dollars I think. Other than that, I haven't had any issues. I still find it funny that it's cheaper to buy from someone at the far end of the states than it is to buy from someone 4 hours from me, but that's how Canada Post rolls, and I guess that's why they've apparently been making so much money compare than the USPS.