: Has anyone experience in ordering varnish, epoxy etc
: from the US? Did you get stung by brokerage fees?

Yes, I ordered from the US, and yes I paid a customs brokerage fee, but "stung" would be a bit harsh in my case.

I ordered the 3 gallon kit of Raka 127/350 epoxy, for delivery to Oakville, ON. The total cost, including everything, came to around $326 Cdn. If I had driven over to Noah's to pick up the same amount of West System epoxy, it would have cost me $423 Cdn ($405 Cdn for MAS, $398 Cdn for East System). I have no idea what it would have cost to have Noah's deliver it to my door. The breakdown for my epoxy purchase was:

$209 Cdn ($130 US) for the epoxy (billed by Raka to my credit card)
$ 39 Cdn ($ 24 US) for shipping by UPS (billed by Raka to my credit card)
$ 78 Cdn for PST, GST, duty & customs brokerage charges (paid COD to UPS)

I've lost track of my UPS payment receipt, but I think the duty was zero, so aside from the sales taxes, it was all brokerage fees (approx $40). I don't know how they calculate brokerage fees, but I suspect that for a smaller order, it would hurt more, and for a larger order, it would hurt less.

One way to ease the pain might be to share a larger order among several people, and split the shipping & brokerage charges.

I also like the idea of shipping to an address on the US side of the border, then picking it up myself. I just haven't figured out how to set that up yet.

Ken