Man… so many BSTs are “No international,” and while in some cases it’s possibly the case that the seller just couldn’t be bothered (one recent BST the person just doesn’t have easy access to a post office), I can’t help that others don’t ship international because they simply don’t know how to do it and for some reason are “afraid” (not the same way you’re afraid of a pack of rabid dogs, mind you) to just learn.
Anybody who has shipped to Canada before, can you help a man out by telling others the steps involved? I can’t do it because I’m the one in Canada…
But to ship to the states, the steps are pretty easy:
Go to the post office
Pick a prepaid box or bubble envelope
Pay for it.
You usually have to indicate the value of the goods being shipped, but if it’s a used yoyo, I don’t think there’s a hard-set catalog price. Go with what you really think you should go with… I’m not necessarily recommending that you put a lower value, but I’ve seen people do it.
If you don’t want to pay for the box (it’s usually a couple extra bucks) and you have your own envelope or box, the steps are much more complicated:
Go to the post office
Present your package
Tell them you would like to ship it to a particular address in the world
Wait for them to run the calculation and tell you how much it will cost.
I don’t know if shipping from the U.S. to Canada is any different, but I can’t imagine it would be! Naturally, we Canadians understand that it will cost more, but once you’ve discovered that a single yoyo in a box is about $13 and a single yoyo in an envelope is about $7, it’s easy to work out an adjustment!
To all the people with no post office access, I don’t blame you. Trying to do it all with the online tools is probably miserable. To all the people who just don’t want to go to the post office: that’s totally your prerogative. Not trying to say people aren’t allowed to just be lazy… we all are allowed, and I don’t blame you an ounce!
But to all the people who are just “Ehhh… um… I don’t know how to do that!” I hope someone provides the details for you or you decide to just bite the bullet and ship to your fine Northern brothers and sisters some day.
Yeah, I would like someone to do that! I mean, Canada is right above us, and its not to far away… I never thought of Canada people, only people far far away.
Well Mr. Petit, I believe I can help. By the way, I just sent you a whole box crammed full of stuff for $13.
It’s no different than shipping in the US aside from the fact that it costs a little more and you have to take two seconds to fill out a customs slip. There are some restrictions on what can be shipped internationally, but yoyos is not on the list.
Shipping to Canada from the US isn’t any different to shipping to Australia or almost anywhere else in the world (excluding certain countries with incredibly dodgy postal services). Come on, BST people, let me buy your stuff! XD
It’s exactly the same except you fill out a customs form as well. It’s slightly more expensive but not much. Tracking, of course, will cost a good bit more though.
Be forwarned…never ship via UPS “standard”. UPS will take power of attorney from both the shipper and the receiver and appoint themselves as the “Brokerage Firm” wrt customs. It isn’t very often that customs would charge duties for a used yoyo and if they did, the worst that could happen would be that the receiver would charged applicable sales tax plus a nominal customs fee of approx. $5.00.
UPS takes it a bit further, they will charge the receiver sales tax plus customs fees. They will also charge the receiver with a “surprise” brokerage fee when the package is delivered.
For example, I bought a used yoyo off the BST for $150. It was sent via UPS in the US and only had to travel a 100 miles to my door. The shipper paid UPS $40. When it showed up @ my doorstep the UPS monkey ask me for $84.00 for brokerage fees! Needless to say, back it went to the reciever (whom by the had to pay another $30 to have it return to him). I’m still waiting for it to be resent which should be soon as the person I bought it from only just got it back from UPS.
That being said, I’ve never ever have had a problem with Fedex or good old USPS! Don’t worried about sending to us I Canada. Just don’t us UPS.
As far as international shipping to Australia goes, I’ve never had any issues with Fed Ex. Had a couple of slight delays with USPS but everything got here safe and sound and without any nasty surprises. Adding UPS to my shipping options blacklist now.
All you do is write what you are shipping, it’s value, sign and date it. Then on the right side of the form you (the shipper) writes his/her name and address and under that writes the receivers name and address. That’s it.
Bump… cause there are still a few people who for whatever reason are all knee-jerk “Um, not outside of the USA.” and it boggles my mind. The world has postal services, people! It’s not the end of the world to use them!
Sending stuff outta state is like grabbing something from our bed, you always “stay” in bed but you have the satisfaction of getting something. It’s easy people of the bst… EASY!
The only countries to avoid shipping to from USA are Italy and Peru (It’s illegal to send yoyos there, I kid you not)
Canada and the rest of the world are pretty easy. Like Miamibuddha showed, fill out the customs form, check gift, put an approximate amount (no duty unless over 10,000 dollars). Most international shipping rates are double what domestic rates are (rates went up, used to actually be cheaper to send to Canada).
I’m not sure about the legality, but I would avoid putting down the yoyo at such a high price.
I once shipped an 888 to Canada and the package went missing because I put down the real price of the yoyo. I usually only put around $15-20 now if they ask for price
The tax the receiver has to pay varies from country to country. Where I live, I usually start paying when packages are declared around the US$30 mark. Ticking the package as a gift doesn’t seem to make a difference, it’s the value they go on.
I’ve had issues with packages declared at full value, so I always mark the value down. What are 2nd hand yoyos really worth anyway?
Exactly, Links. I mainly wanted a thread with the instructions (minimal as they are!) and confirmation that it’s not a big deal. I haven’t the faintest clue why some people say things like “USA only” if the buyer is willing to pay the difference.
