Importing used Audio equipment to Canada

Customs fees resonable? I give a resounding NO to that question.

I live in Montreal and I bought a used pair of Sennheiser PX 200 for US$25 and got slapped with C$12 customs handling fee. More recently, I bought two pairs of Cardas 300B interconnects for US$120 and got hit with the same fee for plus sales tax for a total of C$40.

I sold some gear to someone in Canada... Made the mistake of not agreeing about what to do with customs, so when the UPS shipper asked me for a credit card for the customs form, I read the form and had to swallow hard before giving it to him... The oddity was that you had to put the credit card # on the form, and sign saying that if they imposed customs duties you would pay it--all w/o knowing what the scope of the duties potentially were. On the bright side, no charges ever showed up on my card, and the item was received. I think you definitely want to make sure that the item isn't overdeclared value-wise, and to make sure your note in the contents that its used--I think my form said "Stereo Amplifier (Used)"...

The shipper encouraged me to mark it a "gift," but that seemed wrong on a whole lot of different levels...

I recently had a Canadian buyer back out of a deal for some of my used equipment when Canadiam customs told him the duty would be 15% of their assessment of the value.