Forum - View topicCanadians - thoughts on buying anime these days....
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jmfsilenthill
 Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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I've been away from the forums for a long time,only visiting sporadically. Don't know if many Canadians still come on here (Blood- is long gone, hope he's ok?), but I've been curious about people's buying experiences as of late.
The Canadian dollar is now so poor (~70 cents usd), that buying anime from anywhere other than Amazon.ca is no longer viable for me. Canadian shipping is free at rightstuf at $250 (almost $350 cad), and then we have to pay 50-60 bucks in import fees just to get it across the border. I used to make loads of orders at rightstuf, but my last order was well over a year ago, and only then because I wanted to get the Gundam UC blurays before they went out of print. eBay is similar, with the poor dollar, outrageous shipping fees, and import charges preventing me from buying much of anything. We have "thecnl", which stocks aniplex and other specialty titles, and allows us to avoid shipping and import charges, but the exchange is reflected in the price (along with a little markup too it seems). I was going to order Nisemonogatari off there but it's like over $200. So that pretty much leaves Amazon.ca, which only reasonably prices Funimation and Viz titles. Everything else is significantly more expensive than the American counterpart, with nothing available from aniplex, Nisa, etc. I know there isn't anything I can do about this situation, but I was just wondering are any other Canadians (or other countries that may have a weak currency at the moment) going through a buyin drought? |
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st_owly
 Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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GBP has gone to shit against the dollar as well. (It was $1.6-1.7 to the £ last year, now it's hovering around $1.35-$1.40 to the £) I'm just not importing as much from the US as I used to, (not just anime, but clothes too). We over this side of the pond at least have the option of our own domestic releases, but a lot of them are of inferior quality to US ones.
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Rukiia
 Posts: 1897 Location: British Columbia, Canada |
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For some Aniplex titles I use Amazon Japan because the yen went drastically down last year. Otherwise I mostly use Amazon.ca and sometimes get a friend in the US to order stuff from Rightstuf. Stopped using eBay because the import charges make purchases ridiculously expensive (whoever came up with the idea to include import charges in auctions needs to be slapped). Really hate how much our dollar has fallen. ._.
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zawa113
 Posts: 7357 |
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I'm curious, if something is sent directly from someone in the US, and not through a buying website (Rightstuf or Amazon, etc) or ebay's international sales thing, do they still charge you an outrageous import charge, or do they just seem to let it go?
And that's not even mentioning the US exclusive stuff, like when I helped my dear owl get Dear, Brother back when AnimeSols was a thing (I miss them, honestly, they were doing some awesome stuff), and I helped her get some small things over the holidays. |
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jmfsilenthill
Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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Thanks for the responses!
@st_owly Yes I've looked at getting some region B releases, but like you said a lot of them aren't as nice as the NA counterparts. Though interestingly I just bought the FMA ova art box set from Australia! @Rukiaa Yes I've been eyeing Amazon Japan myself for some releases, but u fortunately I live in a fairly remote area and a lot of courier services don't service the area (pretty much Canada post or nothing). This wasn't an issue when I lived in the city, where Dhl, FedEx and ups all have services. @classicalzawa I believe if the item is marked as 'gift', or if the value of the item is less than $20 or something, you don't get charged any import fees at all. |
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fireaxe
 Posts: 503 Location: Trois-Rivieres, Canada |
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In the past, every now and then your Rightstuf order would slip by the CBSA and get you to avoid paying import taxes on that order. This is sadly now longer possible with Rightstuf's new deal with Fedex, which is mostly great but the old system did let me save many hundreds of dollars over the years.
I used to order from them quite a bit, but now my last order was just about a year ago and I don't know when I'll order again. I definitely will, but that $250 USD minimum, which quickly becomes becomes 400+$ CAD when you consider the current exchange rate and custom fees, that's just killing my desire to place an order anytime soon. I'm not getting anime from anywhere else, mind you, I'm just building a list of things I would like to buy eventually, and hope don't go out of print before the $CAD goes up again. |
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shawnek
Accredited Retailer
 Posts: 786 Location: Right Stuf - www.rightstuf.com - Iowa |
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This is pretty rare these days from my discussions with other retailers. CBSA has modernized their system and "gift" doesn't cut it with them. They also open a lot more of the packages than they did in the past.
I do want to point out here for others that you don't HAVE to buy $250 worth of stuff, but if you do you can obtain free shipping. To my knowledge, no other anime retailer besides us provides free shipping into Canada. The exchange rate is a bad deal, unfortunately I can't do much about that. 
Perhaps you can pool your orders with others? |
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fireaxe
Posts: 503 Location: Trois-Rivieres, Canada |
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As always, thanks Shawne for interacting with us. This is why I haven't simply moved on to another retailer.
You're right, I don't HAVE TO, but shipping can be expensive and also varies for us depending on the exchange rate. So it's kind of a catch 22. I know you're doing your best to accomodate us, but the truth is the exchange rate is so bad right now that it's simply easier for someone like me, with only a limited amount of disposable income, to just stay put and wait for the economy to stabilize a bit. That said, if/when Ponycan USA finally announce their plans for Sound! Euphonium, you MIGHT see my preorders pop in. Even with a sucky exchange rate. Though sadly that's a big if, since I'm not overly confident they'll fix what I don't like about their releases... but that's a whole other issue. |
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st_owly
Posts: 5234 Location: Edinburgh, Scotland |
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I like to get friends (read: classicalzawa) in the US to add things on to their orders, then send them on to me. That way, a package coming in a recycled padded envelope from A.N. Other marked as a gift is much less likely to get nabbed by customs than one from RightStuf Inc.
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jmfsilenthill
Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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I have a question, hopefully you can help me out. Does import/duty/tax fee show up on the website before you complete your order? I was setting up an order for Nisemonogatari but the duty/tax fee didn't show up. Does you get charged after you order? |
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shawnek
Accredited Retailer
Posts: 786 Location: Right Stuf - www.rightstuf.com - Iowa |
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Duty and tax is included when you place your order. You have to be logged in in order to see it, however, as it needs to know what Province you are in. It will show up in the GST/PST area. |
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jmfsilenthill
Posts: 1863 Location: Chinese cartoons are srs biz |
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Thank you!
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ikillchicken
 Posts: 7272 Location: Vancouver |
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This is probably unhelpful for most but I'll go ahead and plug US receiving services. These are businesses that operate in little border towns in the US for Canadians who want to order stuff from the US. For a small fee they receive your packages, store them, and then let you pick them up. That's the catch of course. You need to live close enough to the border to be able to go to the states and pick up your package. This may be unfeasible or even just more trouble than its worth for a lot of people. If that's something you're willing to do though then it is worth looking into. Especially for Rightstuf as it allows you to just get the US shipping rate as well as avoid taxes and duty. I mean, you can theoretically still get charged at the border. However, unlike the mail processing arm of the CBSA, actual border guards do not give even the tiniest of shits about collecting duty in my experience. I've never once been charged. (Although, I suppose things could be more strict elsewhere in Canada.) I mean, personally, I still buy 2/3rds of my anime just off Amazon.ca these days. With the exchange rate, there just isn't enough benefit to doing anything else. Still, for my one or two big Rightstuf orders that I do a year, this is how I do it.
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fireaxe
Posts: 503 Location: Trois-Rivieres, Canada |
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http://www.fandompost.com/oldforums/showthread.php?54057-Sound!-Euphonium-Collector-s-Edition-1-(Blu-ray-DVD-Combo) Whelp... it doesn't seem like these folks have learned anything. Sorry Shawne. 
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