Toronto Photography Meetup Group

Hi all,

I might pay a visit to B&H in NY this week. If I manage to get there I'm willing to bring back some small items under $100 you might be craving for.

PM me, capacity is limited and first come, first served.
You have until 4:00 PM today (Tuesday)

I'm sorry for the short notice and I apologize in advance if I won't be able to send any confirmations back. This trip has been hastily decided.

Edited: if it comes to it, I'll declare full price value at the customs so you might have to pay HST on the full amount. Also don't forget NY state sales tax which you have to pay no matter what.

Hello guys,

I've got your stuff from B&H:

Dmitrijs B+W 77mm #110 Neutral Density (ND) 3.0 Filter $106.86
Carlton B&W #102 52mm ND 0.6 MRC filter $39.00
yeshwanth BP 511a battery $50.83
yeshwanth 16GB Pro CF CARD $197.83
Jamesy Photoflex Convertible Umbrella $85.83

Prices are in CAD and include NY City sales tax (8.875%) and the currency conversion rate of 1.0386


we can meet at Fairview Mall or downtown. Please PM me with your preferences (including hours) and we'll set up a meeting.

cheers,
Radu

It's only AFTER the fact that I discover a product I want that's not available in Canada but available at B&H!

Radu - you are the man! I can meet you at your convience at Fairview anytime this week. Let me know what works for you.

+1 Thanks again!

b&h delivers to Canada at very reasonable rates.
alot of photo gear is also duty free! ie: lenses, dslrs, etc....
Although tax is subject and so is brokerage if you use fedex or UPS. But I think they can also ship usps. Don't quote me on that though.

Ha! Reasonable rates my ....!

I wanted to order a small $50 gadget that is 32 x 25 x 17mm and weighs 5g...B&H wants to charge me more than $30 for USPS 7-10 day delivery!

Two weeks ago I ordered a replacement $35 bezel for my laptop screen from a company in Florida...I don't have the exact specs for it but it was for a 15.4" laptop so it wasn't a small package. They charged $10 for the same shipping option, USPS 7-10 day delivery!

Now, tell me again how B&H charging me three times the amount for the same shipping option for a much smaller package is reasonable?

And here's a copy of the garbage they sent me when I told them this same story:

"We have a minimum shipping fee. If you were to add more items to your cart, you would see the shipping fee either remains the same or only increases slightly. I would recommend that you wait to place your order until you have more items to order. That way the shipping will be more cost effective."

One, I don't want to order any more items (i.e. spend more money) in order to make the excessive shipping fee "more cost effective."

Two, I can't wait until I need a second item as I want the first item NOW, not six months or a year down the road.

When I've had larger orders in the past I never gave a thought to their shipping fee, but now that I do there's a lot of excessive padding for their profit.

Adorama isn't much better in that they don't even have a USPS option when I order the same item, they only have couriers listed.

I'm just kicking myself for not finding this gadget before radup70 went there.

Thank you very much Radu

I'm sorry but I'm going to have to take B&H's side on this one.
I think their shipping charges are very reasonable and most shipping charges are primarily based on weight and (not really) size.

I'd love to find any retailer in the states that can ship small items to Canada for less than $8-10, but I've never found one.

Out of curiosity, what is this gadget that you can't find in Canada that will help you get better pictures for $50 (+10 S&H)

I think this is what he is talking about:
http://tpmg.ca/forum/viewtopic.php?t=16274

I tend to agree with mikefellh on this one. B&H have expensive shipping rates, and if you are ordering a smaller item or single item it is costly to go with B&H sometimes as the shipping costs obliterates any savings over buying it local.

As an example, I wanted to buy the DVD A Hands-On Guide to Creative Lighting with Bob Krist / Joe McNally and it didn't seem to be available here in Canada. I found that B&H had about the best price (currently $25.95 US) but the lowest shipping rate to Canada is $25.55 US. So the total is now $51.50 US.

I found the same DVD at a small operation in Oregon called Camerabooks.com and their price is $31.95 US which does not look so good next to B&H. BUT, their shipping price is $4.95 USPS airmail. Total is $36.90. So guess where I get the DVD. And they mark the package as a gift so I don't pay taxes at the Post Office when it arrives.

Not like UPS who always seem to hit me with "hidden" charges after the product arrives.

Same with some film I wanted. I just wanted two rolls to test out, and the price at B&H was about $5. BUT shipping was again $25. So I was lucky and found that Film Plus had a similar product for $9 and they got the business.

So B&H may rule on prices, but they sure don't on shipping costs.

DG

I have always found it fascinating that I can buy a junky shoot through umbrella from Hong Kong for 6.99 U$D, all in - that is the umbrella and free shipping! Whereas when you buy from any of the US outfits (My Markins and RRS come to mind) then it is the immediate $40 whooping.

Radu, hats off to you for being a gentleman and waiving the shipping charge for those of us lucky enough to have found your thread before you went away!

In that case, $30 for shipping 5g (0.176 ounces).

It's their MINIMUM shipping cost which is at issue...like I said, the other place shipped my larger item for only $10, and other places I've dealt with in the past also have much lower shipping rates.




Jamesy already linked to my other post in the Buying forum which lists it, but quickly it's a little electronic gadget that sits in the hotshoe and tells you if your camera is level; even if I line up the lines on my focus screen to a line on the wall I still get a crooked image, which means I can't rely on the focus screen...this is a gadget that alerts me that I'm straight without taking my eye off the viewfinder.

I've looked EVERYWHERE in Canada including websites for stores in every province of the country...it simply doesn't exist here.

The question of shipping options to Canada comes up regularly, so I put together the following info - hope it helps.
When shopping with Adorama for shipping to Canada, you can choose from: FedEx International Economy, FedEx International Priority and UPS Express.

With UPS Express, there should be no additional brokerage charges for customs clearance, as these are included in the shipping fee. The same holds true for FedEx International Economy and FedEx International Priority. I understand that back in February 2008, there was a class action lawsuit filed in Ontario against UPS for hidden fees.

Sales taxes and duty (if applicable - most photo items are duty free because of NAFTA), are additional and (unless you have an account with FedEx or UPS), are payable upon delivery. Duty may have been paid on the item entering the USA from the originating country if there was no FTA in place. But in any case, photographic equipment items between the US & Canada are duty-free.

However, if your purchase requires a tariff (eg paper products, storage media) this would typically be less than 0.5%. You can download the Customs Act on line to find out how your purchases would be classified and from that, estimate the tariff.

Many customers have reported that USPS online package tracking is not very good, and if a package is mislaid in transit that the customer must wait 45 days before submitting a lost parcel claim. If the value of the goods is over $100 it isn

I apologize, I didn't read the pricing correctly in your original post. $30 is inflated for the minimum shipping cost. In my initial reading, I thought that was the courier cost, not the USPS cost.
I stand corrected.

I order from B&H fairly regularly.
The stuff I can get up here, I usually get at an extremely reasonable price.
I buy mainly from Downtown Camera but, on occasion, I'll patronize Merkle and some grey market folks (Brian @ Harry's Pro Shop or Rob @ Big Camera Workshops).

Now, that said, as someone who has purchased from B&H for about the last 10+ years (both in person and via mail/web) I can thoroughly see why they have a "minimum" shipping charge.

Nothing is ever shipped from the brick and mortar store.
B&H have at least one (but likely two or more) warehouse locations (one in Jersey to the best of my knowledge) from which they pack and ship from.

The store itself is a myriad of conveyor belts and efficiency imho. All of this, combined with the contracts with UPS / FedEx does cost money to maintain, and, after all, B&H is a business. How many of us here, if you were to sell a whole bunch of equipment via Ebay, would charge exactly what the post office charged you? 100% of us? 75%? Are the boxes you end up using "free"? How about the bubble wrap? The gas to get to the post office? Or your time? How much is that worth?

Shipping is never "free" and the "minimum" charge is there, likely, to either deter people from just ordering a small item (one roll of film perhaps) or to entice people to order more than they may want/need. Group buys can help to combat this if there are a lot of small items that a lot of people want. Perhaps that may be the best way to go about these small items?

Hope you get what you want/need in the future.

Cheers,
Dave