buying roller gear in Canada

[shroomino 0]

hey guys, just wanted to throw out a question to any other canucks here...

Having ridiculous, sasquatch-sized feet, its kinda tough to find my size skates (13E). Ordering skates from the US seems to be out of the question, as there are silly restrictions for shipping certain brands to Canada - I got shut down trying to order a pair of RBK 8Ks. Do you guys have any canadian, online retailers that you order from? My LHS will order it in from their distributor, but they want 470 bones as opposed to the 349 it costs online.

Any help is much appreciated. This forum rocks, tons of awesome info.

[TheBert 0]

Any local stores near you? Failing that www.thehockeyshop.com has great selection.

[shute 4]

forget the hockey shop they are a total rip off

[604bullet 0]

^^^

agreed, their prices are NOT competitive

although they have a HUGE selection, the prices are very high

try looking for a US based shipping address (like me), i bought a pair for 9ks and shipped them to states, drove down and picked them up and just declared them on my way back

let's just say i was saving like $150 atleast

where in canada are you?

[TheBert 0]

forget the hockey shop they are a total rip off

They are probably the priceiest LHS in Metro Van. But they've always been willing to split the difference in price between them and HockeyMart.com for me.

[shroomino 0]

thanks for the input guys.

I'm in Vancouver, so I had looked at the Hockey Shop, but they never have anything close to my size and their prices are pretty steep.

604bullet - that's not a bad idea, I'm contemplating just having them shipped to a buddy of mine in Oregon then just having him bounce them up to me. With the 9Ks you got - how are they for lace bite? I've been battling some vicious lace bite from my current skates (vapor 7r), and am sick of relying on jimmied solutions with mousepads, gel pads and moleskin.

[sniper_23 0]

Shroomino,

If you have a car you can ship your package to point roberts and pick them up. It is close to the tsawwassen ferry terminal in Delta. It'll take roughly 30-40 minutes to drive there.

You will most likely have to pay tax coming back into Canada as the only reason people go to Point Roberts is to pick up packages.

Ship to the mailbox companies below. They will hold your packages for you for a small fee.

http://www.tsbshipping.com/

http://www.thelettercarrier.com/contact.htm

Good Luck!

Ian

[shroomino 0]

thanks sniper23, that seems to be the best way to do it - theBert clued me in to tsb shipping down in Point Roberts. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to roll down there on Saturday and pick up my skates, I'm pretty amped. Now if the weather forecast could brighten up a little, I could get a few games in this weekend at the beach rink on the new skates.

[sniper_23 0]

thanks sniper23, that seems to be the best way to do it - theBert clued me in to tsb shipping down in Point Roberts. If all goes according to plan, I should be able to roll down there on Saturday and pick up my skates, I'm pretty amped. Now if the weather forecast could brighten up a little, I could get a few games in this weekend at the beach rink on the new skates.

I think TSB is closed on weekends. The letter carrier is open on weekends though. I would double check before you ship there!

[shroomino 0]

yikes, thanks for the heads up man. Looks like it will arrive early today, I'm going to try and sneak out of work so I can boot down there this afternoon to pick em up.

[shroomino 0]

so just to wrap this up... For folks living in Vancouver, that Point Roberts shipping scheme is freaking sweet. I had no idea it was such an established thing, with like 4+ parcel reception companies getting by on Canadians making use of the 'loophole'.

On another note, the 9K is damn fine skate. Can't say enough good things about it. Riding the stock wheels (RR MB 816) sure made me realize that you guys who play indoors get way better wheels to tool around on. Compared to what I'm used to skating (redstar rockets, Hyper 250s), these dual density, high tech wheels are unreal - but one or two sessions on the asphalt pretty much slays them.

Also, fellow vancouverites - should you find yourself downtown looking for some casual 3 on 3 outdoors, the beach rink has a solid number of guys out weekends and most weeknight evenings these days. Hella fun.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&hl=en&...mp;t=h&z=16

[iggy777 0]

Does anyone know of this kind of service in Minnesota or North Dakota? I am ordering from hockeymonkey and I can't get it shipped to a PO box in the states and they won't let warrior or nikebauer equiptment out of the states. Please help I need to order these soon!

[iggy777 0]

I came up with another option but I'm not sure if it will work:

Does anyone know if you can have a package shipped by UPS from hockeymonkey to a UPS store in the states and then pick it up from there?

[northshore 0]

To Shroomino or anyone else that has gone down there to pick up stuff did you have to pay duty or just the taxes?

[voss 0]

just 12% tax bringing it into BC

if ur lucky and have bout 100 or less they might not even charge you

[TheBert 0]

Right on. I would strongly advise against not declaring the stuff at the crossing -- even if you think you're just buying a $5 Fury wood blade. It's not worth getting caught and blackballed. You'll end up getting the backside scoped and photographed everytime if you end up on the black list.