TubeNet

I might want to ship a tuba from Connecticut to Vancouver.
Is there anything I need to know? (Taxes, import duties. tariffs, red tape, etc.)

bloke wrote:I'd be extremely tempted to only offer to GPX the thing to Seattle, have them have a friend pick it up there, and let THEM worry about how to schlep it across the border.

Trucking tubas across the border to Canada is a TRUE pita.

Bellingham, WA

Otherwise, +1.

Points to consider:

No duty on tubas but the buyer will have to pay sales taxes for the province (12%) plus a customs processing fee. (Depends on the carrier, but minimum 9.95 and some carriers add increments, UPS is the worst)

The horn could be unpacked and repacked at the border, so no matter how good a job you do, your buyer is still taking a risk.

If the buyer doesn't want the GPX service, there is always the option to ship it to a border mail depot (I.e. like a ups store) that charges a little fee to receive the package. Then the buyer can pick it up from there and cross the border himself without putting his instrument at the mercy of customs agents.

bloke wrote:I'd be extremely tempted to only offer to GPX the thing to Seattle, have them have a friend pick it up there, and let THEM worry about how to schlep it across the border.

Trucking tubas across the border to Canada is a TRUE pita.

Agree 100%

Have a total junk tuba in a case when you cross the border.
Buy new tuba.
Throw junk tuba into the lake and put new tuba in the case.
One tuba in, one tuba out - mounties totally fooled!

a) I don't know what GPX is.

b) there is a real possibility that I will be moving lock stock and instruments to Canada within the next year. I have been wondering about the instrument part....quite a few quite valuable instruments. Fortunately not a grand piano. Tuba is the biggest but not the most expensive. I don't even know where to start on how to do that.

MaryAnn wrote:a) I don't know what GPX is.

"GPX" is Greyhound's acronym for "Greyhound Package Express".

So it's definitely not Grand Prix Express.

Living so close to Canada, I have driven across the border to ship items from Niagara Falls Ontario Greyhound to other parts of Canada. Unless you can drive the item over and ship it yourself from a Canadian Greyhound station, I highly recommend just shipping in the States and let the Canadian individual come over to pick up the horn....

Get the buyer to pick it up from Greyhound shipping somewhere in Washington state. (Bellingham?)

MaryAnn wrote:So it's definitely not Grand Prix Express.

I thought NAFTA was suppose to fix all this...

b) there is a real possibility that I will be moving lock stock and instruments to Canada within the next year. I have been wondering about the instrument part....quite a few quite valuable instruments. Fortunately not a grand piano. Tuba is the biggest but not the most expensive. I don't even know where to start on how to do that.[/quote]


Mary Ann,

Feel free to PM me if you do head north. Having made the move just over a year ago I can offer some advice. Tubas are less of a pain than moving cars across the border!

Tom