The united parcel stickup is well known. Fully ninety percent of vendors I use either automtically devalue goods or will act on request. The free into canada amount is twenty dollars but i do not know if that is canadian or american dollars. Two hundred dollars for our items entering into the states get no surcharges I am aware of. I even have an american mail drop but save it for emergencies where I must have the item. Even worse is ups can have three times the shipping price from the same area as usps. They indeed are a clip service. To be fair overall I have saved a fortune buying in the states over home prices. I cannot afford not to buy in the states both from a price as well as availability perspective on some items. My real problem is to get american vendors to sell a canadian. First I try to assure them it is easy and that I am easy to get along with. Then I move into the mercinary stage that usually does it by appealing to their greed. I suspect that it is universal when I tell them how much more they might realise by letting me bid and explain it. Some of our own home grown vendors are much harder to deal with. Pay attention to developing your feedback beyond perfect. You want comments in there that others do not get. Work at it.