[drewski]

For quite a while now, I had been reading reviews and watching videos online about how much fun the Pentax Q (and subsequent models) could be. So I figured, what the heck, let me get one for myself. I realize I had missed the big sale when the prices plummeted earlier, but a quick check around ebay and local stores in Toronto shows that where available, the stores still want around $400 for the 02 Kit. So I go to the Forums, and found that most of the ones that do come around, do not ship to Canada at all. Which is fine I guess - the seller has every right to choose where he/she wants to ship it. Then I discovered cross border 'receivers' in the US, where they offer to receive your goods from US-Only shipping stores/sellers. Was pretty frustrated when I found out that some sellers don't even want to consider my purchase offers with these perfectly legitimate shipment receivers. In the end, I went to Amazon.com, bought the Q + 02 kit for $199 with free shipping and asked Amazon to deliver it to one of these shipment receivers. A 1.5 hour drive later, I'm now a very happy owner of a brand new Pentax Q with an 02 lens.

Reading this earlier thread : https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/14-general-talk/145415-opinion-postal-bar...parrallel.html, I guess this 'issue' has been around for quite a while, and will probably stay that way in the future. Just wanted to share my experience with anyone else who live near the border, and want to pick up something from Amazon.com or any sellers who don't discriminate against these shipping receivers. The folks I used were American-mailbox.net. I don't know these people, and this was my first time using them - very pleasant experience, and will definitely use them again in the future.

Hope this would be helpful to a fellow Canadian wanting to buy from the US in the future.

[Lowell Goudge]

For quite a while now, I had been reading reviews and watching videos online about how much fun the Pentax Q (and subsequent models) could be. So I figured, what the heck, let me get one for myself. I realize I had missed the big sale when the prices plummeted earlier, but a quick check around ebay and local stores in Toronto shows that where available, the stores still want around $400 for the 02 Kit. So I go to the Forums, and found that most of the ones that do come around, do not ship to Canada at all. Which is fine I guess - the seller has every right to choose where he/she wants to ship it. Then I discovered cross border 'receivers' in the US, where they offer to receive your goods from US-Only shipping stores/sellers. Was pretty frustrated when I found out that some sellers don't even want to consider my purchase offers with these perfectly legitimate shipment receivers. In the end, I went to Amazon.com, bought the Q + 02 kit for $199 with free shipping and asked Amazon to deliver it to one of these shipment receivers. A 1.5 hour drive later, I'm now a very happy owner of a brand new Pentax Q with an 02 lens.

Reading this earlier thread : https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/14-general-talk/145415-opinion-postal-bar...parrallel.html, I guess this 'issue' has been around for quite a while, and will probably stay that way in the future. Just wanted to share my experience with anyone else who live near the border, and want to pick up something from Amazon.com or any sellers who don't discriminate against these shipping receivers. The folks I used were American-mailbox.net. I don't know these people, and this was my first time using them - very pleasant experience, and will definitely use them again in the future.

Hope this would be helpful to a fellow Canadian wanting to buy from the US in the future.

I ordered mine from B&H. No issue shipping to canada

[drewski]

I ordered mine from B&H. No issue shipping to canada

Yes, I have ordered items from B&H, as well as Adorama and had it sent up here to Canada with no issues, but sometimes there are things that are available on Pentaxforums, ebay.com, Amazon.com, etc where the seller will only ship to the US.

In this case, since the Pentax Q is no longer the current model, neither B&H nor Adorama has it available any more. I did shop around, and the exact same package sold by a different seller through amazon.ca works out to CAD 395, vs the CAD 245 I paid for it through amazon.com. I'm all for supporting local businesses, but for $395, I might as well go buy the newer Q7. I wanted the original Q because of its all metal body - yes the sensor is smaller, but when I need better IQ, I'd turn to my K5.

[normhead]

The original Qs were just cleared out at Henry's, $299 with two lenses, you just missed it by a week.

[drewski]

The original Qs were just cleared out at Henry's, $299 with two lenses, you just missed it by a week.

rats... I wonder if it's just specific locations. I work in downtown Toronto, pretty near Henry's and didn't hear about any clearance. I'd been checking websites (like photoprice.ca), and I thought I'd pretty much missed the boat already. I've been very happy using my K5 for a few years now, but there's been so many times I didn't bring it along someplace because it was too bulky, and I wanted to take a picture, and the smartphone 'camera' just doesn't cut it.

[normhead]

I think it was last week, by the time I got there Thursday last week, they were all sold out on line, and there was a few left in Windsor... I didn't feel like driving to Windsor. I lived there for a while. I never visit.

[gofour3]

For quite a while now, I had been reading reviews and watching videos online about how much fun the Pentax Q (and subsequent models) could be. So I figured, what the heck, let me get one for myself. I realize I had missed the big sale when the prices plummeted earlier, but a quick check around ebay and local stores in Toronto shows that where available, the stores still want around $400 for the 02 Kit. So I go to the Forums, and found that most of the ones that do come around, do not ship to Canada at all. Which is fine I guess - the seller has every right to choose where he/she wants to ship it. Then I discovered cross border 'receivers' in the US, where they offer to receive your goods from US-Only shipping stores/sellers. Was pretty frustrated when I found out that some sellers don't even want to consider my purchase offers with these perfectly legitimate shipment receivers. In the end, I went to Amazon.com, bought the Q + 02 kit for $199 with free shipping and asked Amazon to deliver it to one of these shipment receivers. A 1.5 hour drive later, I'm now a very happy owner of a brand new Pentax Q with an 02 lens.

Reading this earlier thread : https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/14-general-talk/145415-opinion-postal-bar...parrallel.html, I guess this 'issue' has been around for quite a while, and will probably stay that way in the future. Just wanted to share my experience with anyone else who live near the border, and want to pick up something from Amazon.com or any sellers who don't discriminate against these shipping receivers. The folks I used were American-mailbox.net. I don't know these people, and this was my first time using them - very pleasant experience, and will definitely use them again in the future.

Hope this would be helpful to a fellow Canadian wanting to buy from the US in the future.

I've been using a Postal Service across the border in Blaine, Washington for years. (I actually went down today to send & pick something up.)

I use the shipping service not only for stores/sellers that don’t ship to Canada, but also for KEH, B&H or Adorama to save on shipping costs. Most of shipping costs are either free or under $10.00 within in US from these guys, if I had the same items sent to Canada it would be at least $30.00 more.

The biggest savings was free shipping to my postal service in the US and it would have cost over $60.00 to have the same item sent to my home in Canada.

Phil.

[drewski]

The biggest savings was free shipping to my postal service in the US and it would have cost over $60.00 to have the same item sent to my home in Canada.

Totally agree on that front. Which is why even after the 1.5 hours drive each way (I make a day trip out of it!), filling up the car with cheaper gasoline in the US, factoring the current exchange rate (we lose about 10%) AND paying the $5.50 handling for the package, I still saved myself about $150.