I think I’m going to need a bigger vehicle.
It’s been over a decade that I travelled to Ogdensburg, NY to pick up some packages. But when the Super7 Cat’s Lair went on sale, I noticed that shipping cost $100USD if mailed to an American address and $350USD if mailed to Canada.
I also checked with my ‘toy guy’ and he said he could get the Cat’s Lair to me for $1,250+tax. I decided to go the Ogdensburg route.
A year and half later I finally get an email saying that the Cat’s Lair had shipped! But I have to admit that after a year and half of waiting I realized that I just didn’t have the room to display such a thing.
Got this photo off of Reddit. Look at the size of this thing!
It was a crisp February morning when I went down to Ogdensburg. Crossing the border was easy peasy at 9:30am on a Saturday morning and there was no lineup at the UPS store.
The boxes were huge. I knew it would be large but I thought it would have fit in the trunk! But it didn’t. Luckily I didn’t have any kids with me so I could move the car seat out of the way and put the box in.
The best part of my day was arriving at the Canadian border. They asked me to go in and pay duty…or it is taxes on the item. I told them the value was $810USD (which was actually a mistake…it was $650USD but I told them the total which included taxes and shipping. Woops!
But the toy collecting gods shined on me when the following conversation happened.
Agent: “So…this thing is like…a playset for action figures?”
Me: “Yes.”
Agent: “All plastic?”
Me: “Yes.”
Agent: “Well…you don’t need to pay HST right now because of that HST break the Government of Canada put in place for things like gifts for kids.”
I had a smile as large at the Cheshire cat walking out of the place! What a score. I couldn’t believe my luck.
As it stands, I made out pretty good with my purchase.
Price if I would have bought it in Canada from my toy guy
$1,250CDN+tax = $1,412.50.
Although I do see on his website that he’s selling it for $1,499+tax. Maybe the price went up or maybe he was giving me a good deal for being a good customer.
Price I ended up paying
$850USD
Toll booth there and toll booth back = $6.50USD or $8.50CDN
Price to pick up two packages at UPS store (one was over 30 pounds so they had to charge a bit more) = $16USD
Gas = 1/4 tank so let’s say $20CDN.
Let’s call that $1,228.50CDN.
That’s a difference of $184.
I have to say that I’m not entirely sure what I calculated a year and a half ago. I probably would have been better to go ahead and order it in Canada if I actually did have to pay HST on the item when coming across the border.
But that didn’t happen and here I am with some money in my pocket.