Better Value in Dollar

Lately I was asked a lot of questions regarding importing large screen Plasma/LCD TVs from the US.

After a brief survey, I wasn’t surprised that there’s a sharp price disparity between the US and Canadian prices. Take the popular Sharp – AQUOS 52″ 1080p Flat-Panel LCD HDTV for example, both BestBuy.com and BestBuy.ca have a special offer, one at US$1299, the other at CA$1,899. 46% price difference.

So it makes all the sense to shop in the US. Or is it?

Now how much duty or tax will you be charged? This may change the equation significantly. Here’s the list of taxes that you’ll have to pay when importing that big screen TV.

• US state tax, depending on which state you purchase the TV. New Hampshire has 0% state tax, whereas Washington taxes 6.5%.
• Duty of 5% (8528.72, covering high-definition, flat-screen, projection, CRT ), if the TV is not made in Mexico or US. One reader reported 7% being labeled as “luxury tax”. I cannot find reference on excise tax.
• GST/PST on top of all above.

If you have stayed outside Canada over 48 hours, you can claim your personal exemption of $400 or $750.

One tip, many good brand TV, e.g. Panasonic 50″ Plasma T.V, are  made in Mexico. You can get away without paying the duty by choose those brands. When you cross the border, choose a senior-looking officers who would be more experienced in dealing with NAFTA and duty issues, and make less mistake in calculating the duty/tax.

Do your math, then you know whether it’s worthwhile.

Update Jan. 6 2010: A reader reported that the duty of an HD display TV is 3.5%,  assuming it’s made outside North America.

Another Update: If you live close to the border, try get free shipping to a UPS store near the border and you can go pick up. Amazom.com has the best deals on HDTV, Cameras, and Computers. I saved myself 25%, doing this, see blog here.

Did you notice that one Canadian Dollar can exchanged for nearly 0.98 US$ in the last few day?

Well some people did.  And the idea of cross border shopping jumped immediately to their mind.

I had two email in the last two days inviting me to two interviews.  One with CBC Winnipeg, and the with The Global and Mail.

Being a self-appointed expert (well I learnt it by mistakes), I gladly accepted both invitations.   In the pre-interview, the CBC Winnipeg producer asked me when I started cross-border shopping.  My answer, “since there was a border.”

The CBC Winnipeg interview was broadcasted live at Oct. 14^th 6:10pm EDT.  I have a recording here, if you’re interested (CBC-Winnipeg-Interview).  And the Global and Mail interview was yesterday, with a promise to publish on next Monday’s paper (Oct. 19^th) or the PDF: How to score a cross-border shopping deal.  Have a good reading, if you grab a copy.  It’s full of tips on cross-border shopping that you can read on this website.

I’m glad that our loonie is close to par again with US dollar, like I predicted in early June. But I didn’t expect it to return so soon.

Let’s put aside the debate of why Canadian prices are so high (be it price gauging or scale of economy). By all means, take advantage of the strong Canadian dollar, and Happy Cross-border shopping.

Shopping at US online, Pick up at the border: a great cost saving practice.

Thanks to the resource and commodity material boom, Canadian dollar has been on a par value with US dollar for a year now. Many economists predict Canadian dollar will maintain its value for quite a few more years to come. However, Canadians are still suffering from retailers price gauging, paying 10~20% more on most common merchandise. Cross-border shopping is a popular pastime to Canadians who seek better value in dollar.

Apart from price disparities, there are other things which still rip you off in shipping, brokerage fee and even in payment. If you’re laden with those hidden charges, you’re bargain-hurting no more.

One hardly known practice to the Canadian bargain hunters is to purchase goods online and pick up across border. The idea is to purchase online or on eBay and ship to a UPS store or local mail shop near the border. Because about three-quarters of Canada’s population live within 150 km of the United States border, this works really well.

The border UPS store owners are used to this practice. They normally charge around $5 per delivery. They like you to do a prompt pickup but delaying a week or so is acceptable, in which case do call to inform the owner.

When you cross the border, you can let the border guards know that you are going shopping. Don’t forget your passport these days. Before returning, you want to open the package and make sure that all the parts are there and there is nothing extra. At the Canadian border, you declare the goods with value shown and pay the GST/PST and duty if the goods are not made in US/Mexico. Duty for Japanese electronics is normally 6%.

Shopping this way, people reported saving at least 40% buying a boat or a set of 4 winter tires.