I've discovered that the Canadians have a lot of cool gear that we can't get in the US.

I'm planning to order a tent, and have a question about customs.

"Orders shipped to the USA are not charged Canadian taxes; however, all orders pass through customs and are subject to import duties, taxes, and custom processing fees. A customs invoice will arrive with your parcel or may follow in the mail. Recipients are responsible for paying these additional fees"

Has any one ordered from Canada before? How much were the fees?

Thanks for any help!

I have been buying gear from Mountain Equipment Co-Op www.mec.ca and I have had no problems. I have never paid duty on items from Canada. I believe the NAFT agreement took care of that.
I say go for it. I have been extremely pleased with the quality of the items I have purchased from MEC and I highly recommend their Co-Op "brand" of products.

Beavers, let us know how it goes if you order your tent. I have also been looking at some of the Canadian products. I love the new Eureka Alpine Meadows Outfitter tent that they sell in Canada. I called and asked one company what the charges would be and they were unable to help me. My brother was going through Winnipeg duck hunting this fall and I was going to have him buy it but being in the fall, all the stores were out until next spring. So much for that plan. Now I'm back into the buy and ship mode so let us know how it goes.

Beavers

I too have been looking at some tents and other gear on a couple of Canada www sites. The Eureka tents for the Canada market are on par with some of the best the US makers have to offer(ripstop etc). When you figure in the exchange rates the prices are not too bad either. Prices for barrels is real reasonable also. You can tell that the gear is designed for the shield lakes climate. Good stuff!!

cedarboy

Thanks for the info guys.

The Canadian market tents are great!

Most have full coverage flies and huge twin vestibules. You can tell they were actually designed for canoe camping, unlike most of the tents in the US.

I'm trying to decide between the Eureka Mountain Pass 3xt and a MEC brand tent. I'll let you know how it goes when I get around to ordering it.

These are the two Canadian gear sites I have found.

Any other good ones you can add?

Gear Up for Outdoors

Mountain Equipment Co-Op

Beavers, Here are a couple sites that I've looked at:

North Bay Adventure Company - http://www.nbcanoe.com/

United Army Surplus Sales - http://www.gearforthegreatoutdoors.com/

Lebron - http://www.lebaron.ca/

Gear up for the Outdoors and Lebron were recommended to my by the guy who runs the Eureka Canada division as companies that ship to the US.

Canoepaddle

Add to that list gear-up.com

cedarboy