[thechris]

Oh no, my gripe isn't with ToyWiz specifically. Like I said, it's with a lot of sellers from the US. I don't have an issue with Americans, I have an issue with American price gouging on the shipping end of things. It's actually often cheaper for me to buy things from England and Hong Kong than it is from the US. As funny as this sounds, it sometimes even arrives faster. In my experience, the shipping is usually less. I mean I hate it say it, but it seems to be an issue that I come across most when buying from the United States. There are some decent stores like BigBadToyStore with a more reasonable shipping charge but mainly it's been gouge after gouge. Just to name a few, ToyWiz, ringsidecollectibles, almost anything off of Amazon.com, ToyGlobe.

This definitely isn't a crack against America as a country. I can't speak for all Canadians, and I can't speak for other countries who have the same problems we have buying from another country, but I can speak for myself and some other fellow Canadians who are really fed up. I've had a lot of positive experiences buying online from the US, too, as far as pricing goes on the shipping and handling and overall costs. BBTS, obviously. And a recent purchase from wbcollect.com. Excellent shipping rates to Canada (Sometimes free), outstanding customer service and communication, rock bottom prices on most items. I highly recommend both for non-US buyers, at least the ones from Canada. If anyone else has found some good stores, please let me know.

There are a few US eBayers I also highly recommend. I bought a huge lot of figures including several Frost Giants from one seller from the US and the shipping was barely $20 and it arrived in about 3 days, insured, tracked, etc! I don't get it. Why can't anyone else do this? Either USPS is highly inconsistent from city to city or there are a lot of crooks looking to make a buck or thirty on inflated shipping rates.