Oberon shipping to canada 104.45 with UPS - yikes!

[albianne]

For those Canadians on board who have ordered Oberon covers/journals etc, how did you have them shipped?  I am in the middle of placing my order and when I reached the shipping choices was a bit aghast to see USPS - 17.50 or UPS - 104.45 which seems so steep.  This is the message I get when I choose USPS:

"First Class International Shipping: BUYER BEWARE: the price looks great but this method can take up to 20 days or longer to arrive, is difficult to track and is uninsured. Thank you!"

I have no problem with waiting the 20 days or the 17.50 shipping charge but I am a bit worried about not having any insurance on a kindle cover and an Icon journal + filler worth over 150.00 but there is no way I will pay 104.45 just for the shipping.  Also would like feedback from any Canadians on whether they were additional charges for duty & taxes.  I was under the impression that a hand crafted item manufactured in the US wouldn't have duty, with the free trade agreement between our countries but would hate to get any surprises when I go to pick up the parcel at the post office.  Any input appreciated, thanks.

[OberonDesign.com]

You also might want to post this on our FB page since we have many that buy from Canada over there. I can't speak to the duties in our country the reason we put the disclaimer there for the most part is the length of time

our FB page is

www.facebook.com/oberondesign

you may get some responses there if you can't find them here.

[babnaw]

It can take a long time to get stuff from the US, but not always, and I've never had anything (yet) get lost in the mail on the way to me.  UPS is probably so much because they charge a $30+ brokerage fee.  There is no duty on the pkg., just reg. Canadian taxes and a $5 charge if it comes via USPS, but if it comes via FedEx or UPS it can cost a lot because of the brokerage fee.  I live in a border city and have actually had a company write, "customer will clear" on a UPS pkg. that was coming to me and then when it came in to the UPS office I drove down, picked up the paperwork, went to the border center and entered some stuff on the computer, got the pkg. cleared, then returned the cleared papers to UPS and got my pkg.  However, I don't know where you live or how easy it would be for you to do that.  For me it took up about an hour of my time, which was worth saving the brokerage fee to me, but your situation may be different.

I used to have a friend in the US that I shipped stuff to and I'd drive over stateside, do some shopping while I was over there, and then pick up my pkg. at her house, but she moved.  So now I either don't order things at all or ship to my house but USPS only as I don't want the UPS costs.