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Author Topic: Where to buy paper in Toronto?  (Read 14236 times)

Aristoc

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Re: Where to buy paper in Toronto?
« Reply #40 on: February 17, 2011, 11:23:32 am »

Yes Ken the last time I purchased from them the shipping selector gets stuck. Took me a long time before it went through properly.
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Tim Gray

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Re: Where to buy paper in Toronto?
« Reply #41 on: February 17, 2011, 01:22:06 pm »

Let us know how that works out.  I've never use Purolator from the US to Canada.  Sometime (and UPS is one offender, particularly for their cheapest options) a shipper quotes one price and they end up adding a bunch of brokerage fees to the price.

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Aristoc

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Re: Where to buy paper in Toronto?
« Reply #42 on: February 17, 2011, 01:45:31 pm »

Ill answer your Q right now Tim. i bought ink and a reflector kit from B&H. Although the shipping calculator seemed to take multiple tries it finally gave me a total. A couple of days later I got my items. I did not pay a cent more. What was on the web invoice was exactly what I payed. Purolator is just fine.

JUST KEEP IN MIND that B&H web site is in USA dollars. So as long as the looney is = or > than the USA dollar, you should be fine.

one more thing: credits cards charge a currency change fee usually about 2 - 3 %. So you have to add this to your bill. You can find credit cards that don't charge this extra fee. Keep this in mind too.

« Last Edit: February 17, 2011, 02:12:26 pm by Aristoc »
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kenben

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Re: Where to buy paper in Toronto?
« Reply #43 on: February 17, 2011, 02:09:17 pm »

Up where I am the order starts out UPS and I get it through Purolator
When I got my invoice through email they had the wrong paper.So I had to call them back and tell them.They are even having problems with the shipping.The shipping was even a couple dollars cheaper on the invoice than what was quoted on the internet.

They canceled my order and were to get back to me with the correct order when the shipping problem was solved.
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mikev1

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Re: Where to buy paper in Toronto?
« Reply #44 on: February 18, 2011, 02:50:31 am »

I was really hoping this wouldn't degrade into a discussion of economics.  Having published numerous articles over the years dealing with economics in professional publications (not photography publications, obviously) in a former life it's often sad when I see people start trying to address the subject.

WRT prices being higher when the exchange rate was weaker, keep in mind that prices are set for products months in advance.  Look at what happened when the exchange rate strengthened and people were up in arms because book prices were way out of sync.  Businesses (producers) can, if they desire, make special pricing adjustments through rebates or credits to retailers which they can demand retailers pass on to customers but if this doesn't happen then there's nothing the retailer or consumer can do.  The retailer can decide to lower its profit margins but isn't compelled to do so.  The business cycle, unfortunately, doesn't react as quickly as the markets can.  Further, to suggest that prices were about right when the CAD was at $1.50 is flat out incorrect (see below paragraph on PPP).  I've saved literally thousands of dollars over the years buying bodies, lenses and other sundry gear (less on bodies, more on lenses) from the U.S. when the CAD was weaker and that's after factoring in exchange rate differences, shipping costs and taxes.

PPP really doesn't play a part either.  PPP theory is based on a basket of common goods that are traded and consumed by a broad sector of a population across countries.  PPP theory doesn't necessarily hold for highly specialised goods which photography gear would be considered as.  There's also no set definition of what the 'basket' of goods should be so PPP is nothing more than an estimate rather than a hard and fast number.  Additionally, PPP is a long term indicator and is not intended to be used as an indicator for shorter term fluctuations and volatility.  When we talk 'long term' in economics, we're talking about 15, 20 or more years.  There are also two forms of PPP; absolute and relative.  Absolute PPP deals with absolute price differences.  Relative PPP deals with inflation and rates of change of prices. 



I wouldn't call it sad Bob.  Though I knew someone would call me out on PPP.  Yes I made some generalizations however you'll note that I did not specify camera goods but rather goods in general.  My main point was price stickiness which you address as well.  Manufactures are under no obligation to lower prices and they will hold out as long as possible.  The consumer of course is under no obligation to purchase goods in his home country and often will search out the best price.

Also I didn't mean to suggest that prices were correct when the exchange rate was $1.50, merely explaining that the price difference on lots of goods could be explained by the different currency values at that time.  A little harder to justify price differences on a lot of products in the current environment.

I worked as a Financial Analyst for a number of years doing planning and forecasting for a bank and while exchange rates and cross border shopping were not in my direct line of work I did keep abreast of the topic.

I'm too lazy to look up and data (and I don't really have access to it anymore) but I do recall reading a study suggesting that we are lazy as consumers wrt pricing differences.

At times I think economics is more art than science.  I think the weatherman has a better chance at forecasting success than an economist.  I used to hate when people ran around calling one of my financial models "Mike's model".  I didn't want the praise went it was working great and I sure didn't want the heat when it wasn't.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Where to buy paper in Toronto?
« Reply #45 on: February 19, 2011, 10:58:46 am »

Let us know how that works out.  I've never use Purolator from the US to Canada.  Sometime (and UPS is one offender, particularly for their cheapest options) a shipper quotes one price and they end up adding a bunch of brokerage fees to the price.



Tim, what's going on here with UPS is quite straightforward. If you select UPS Ground from the USA, the shipping rate is low, but they add about 40 dollars in brokerage to get the stuff out of customs. Outrageous of course, but that's it. One of the real partly non-governmental barriers to "free trade". If you select UPS 2nd day air or any service that is not Ground, the rates are higher, the brokerage is included. So you simply need to compare for each shipment and see what works best.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Where to buy paper in Toronto?
« Reply #46 on: February 19, 2011, 11:05:29 am »

You folks in Toronto have more options than I do.Living in Sudbury Ontario we only have Henry's.I order all of my printing paper from mail order.I like using the Moab Somerset Museum Rag.Vistek is the only place in Ontario I can find it.

I came across this price for Museum Rag in the US,does anyone know of this company.I called and a salesperson quoted me 106.00 but I referred him to the website and he comfirmed that price.Makes me a little leery.

http://www.atlex.com/cgi-bin/commerce.cgi?preadd=action&key=I98-SMR300131925

You can buy on-line from most of the Toronto outlets being discussed here, but will pay shipping to Sudbury.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
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kenben

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Re: Where to buy paper in Toronto?
« Reply #47 on: February 21, 2011, 08:14:36 am »

I ended up ordering from B&h.The Somerset Museum Rag was 73.00.The shipping by Purolator Post was 10.00.
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Mark D Segal

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Re: Where to buy paper in Toronto?
« Reply #48 on: February 21, 2011, 07:00:47 pm »


I'm too lazy to look up and data (and I don't really have access to it anymore) but I do recall reading a study suggesting that we are lazy as consumers wrt pricing differences.

At times I think economics is more art than science.  

Economics is both.

And as consumers, when it matters, we SHOULD NOT be lazy researching price differences. A necessary condition for sustaining open market competition is informed consumers. Canadian consumers can often leverage their knowledge of cheaper and accessible foreign pricing to influence pricing in this country.
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Mark D Segal (formerly MarkDS)
Author: "Scanning Workflows with SilverFast 8....."
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