Lets Play Guess The Brokerage Fees!!!

Here's the deal with the brokerage stuff....you can thank your government for all these fees. UPS is only making minimal money on the fees themselves, they are paying the taxes and duties levied by the Canadian government on your foreign-country purchases and then passing those costs back to you. If you'd like to see what percentage of the purchase price in duties you going to pay on a specific item, go here http://hts.usitc.gov/ and find the item you are purchasing and it will show you the percentage of the duties you will pay. I ship from the US to Canada a lot for my job so I have extensive experience with this. This percentage also does not include taxes levied by the Canadian government as well. If you go to that link you will see what I mean when I say that International trade laws are regulations are a huge PITA to deal with. We get complaints all the time from Canadian customers about these charges but as the exporter we can't do anything about it, its the price you pay for buying outside your country. Now, if the item is made in the USA or Mexico then it qualifies to be duty-free under NAFTA so that is something to consider but the seller/exporter has to note it on the commercial invoice. THis is a big complex ball of crap and I'm sure you guys just trying to buy a small part don't care but the more educated you are about it the better off you will be next time you buy a part.
In summary, the very best way to ship across the border is to use USPS International Priority mail in a flat-rate container if at all possible. Most American businesses SHOULD be happy to accomodate a request for this unless they are also trying to make money through inflated shipping charges. USPS provides all the packaging for free and will pick it up at your location also for free.
If anyone wants to know more about international trade laws and regulations, please PM me so I don't have to bore the whole board to death with it.
And personally I think milk in a bag makes sense. Re-use your container and save a little bit of the environment.
-Tim