 Re: Any Canadians shipping to US?
Yeah, compared to the US we really suck in the mail department. I haven't found a cheaper alternative. I have a larger US customer interested in my line and shipping (especially faster shipping) by courier is an expensive pain in the butt. I live near the border and could theoretically clear customs into the US myself and then UPS orders from there, which is ok for large orders, but what about small orders? The border lineup is horrific unless you go in the middle of the night!
What we do in another business we have, is mail/take/truck a large batch of items to our warehouse storage unit south of the line and have them picked and shipped by our shipper there. But then you have a picking fee + storage rental (which can work if you move lots of stock I guess). The picking/packing fee is something like $2.00 per order + reasonable envelope/box cost. The storage was fairly cheap I think.
This works out nicely because we just email our shipper with the item number/colour and they pack/send it and send the tracking # to the customer and us. I don't do have to do much except make sure they have sufficient stock. I've never tried to work out if that's any cheaper in the long run, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was. It sure is less work eventually.
Anyway, that's the best I've come up with so far... | 
