Americans should buy Lee Valley tools and sell back to Canadians on Ebay.

[Leon]

Robert, you must be a Democrat. Only they will whine about something and not do anything about it. ;~)

[AAvK]

Robert you gotta understand something here... almost every U.S. galoot in this NG absolutely worships Lee Valley and it's Veritas products, see? Hence your many negative responses. I am economical and poor because of my health conditions, I have mentioned it before but no one gives a genuine rat's ass... so I get around paying and supporting the giants any way I can. Although I would love to have a Veritas low angle block plane.

But personaly I can see your understanding in that most if not all Veritas products are made in Canada, and if sold to Canadian peoples at 30% higher, it would piss you red maple leafs right off.

The grass is green and the sky is blue, whaddya do?

One thing to remember about shopping in the U.S.A. and you try to hide it in your vehicle, the border patrol take and record the weight of your vehicle. Anything you bring back across the border will add weight down to the ounce.

Sorry if this didn't help, Alex

[Frank Ketchum]

That's a neat trick. I wonder how they account for the coffee and donuts you had for breakfast which adds weight not to mention how much difference in weight there is between a full tank of gas and an empty one. Please to explain?

Frank

[Leon]

Your kidding right? I suspect if you fill up with gas or drive around and burn gas before crossing back or bring another person or two or bla bla bla is going to create a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong line of cars to be inspected. Tell'em you bought groceries.

[AAvK]

They take that into account. They know the weight of gas and record how full the tank is. "They" know how to figure it all in. Same at the Mexican border but no doubt all the more thoroughly done. Probably a bit more casual up north.

Alex

[Lobby Dosser]

So I stop at the US side at Blaine, WA coming back from Vancouver driving a semi-beat-up 74 Plymouth. Guy with the appearance of a gas jocky at Chevron (not at all like the neatly uniformed Canadian border types) wants to know what I bought while I was gone for 3 days. "Nothing I didn't consume, everything I saw I could buy cheaper at home" says I. Forty five (45) minutes later they're still searching for something - one marijuana seed - anything!

Now I should have known better having once witnessed the complete ripping apart of a couple suitcases by English customs on a return from France. Guy told me he had all kinds of crap he was bringing in. I told him my old man always told me to declare *something*. He ignored my advice, declared nothing and probably spent a couple years in one of Her Majesty's Hotels.

[Rob Stokes]

Robert's not a "fellow" Canadian, he's an idiot and an embarrassment to the country.

Rob

[Robert]

Well at least I don't drop my pants and bend over every time Rob Lee drops by the newsgroup.

[Robert]

What's more Rob Lee seems to get off on it. He appears to love his Yankee groupies and not give a rats ass about the country that gave his company it's start. He basically said we Canadians pay more to subsidize Lee Valley's American customers.

[igor]

OK, so the fact is that one can get an LV product cheaper in real terms w/ US dollars versus C dollars, at the moment. But, it seems that LV is the one really taking it in the shorts -- assuming it is doing its accounting in C$ and didn't hedge its currency risk -- because LV is being paid in weakened US$. Then again, to the extent that it is paying for things in US dollars that hit is being offset. But salaries are in C$, I presume.

Now, I'm not taking up a collection for any seller. After all, they could (and maybe have) hedged. But I do see that it is tough when the business model depends on a printed catalog 1 year out (or more). FWIW. -- Igor

[Leon]

Well if it makes you feel better, we Yanks have to go to Canada to buy our American made drugs at a reasonable price.

[Leon]

Uh huh.

[Daniel H]

Robert,

[1] This is a good opportunity for arbitrage on your part. If you are really serious, do it! I know people who buy electronics, send the merchandise to friends in the USA, and then pick them up. Now, these people I know live close to the border... [2] I don't recall any Americans complaining about how much cheaper it would be to buy CAD at $1.50CAD/USD and buy their Lee Valley toys in Canada at the time we had a 66-cent dollar. The exchange rate sword cuts both ways. [3] If you really wanted to save some money, you could do what I recently did: I submitted an order to LV, got 7% off, and free shipping as well. Of course, this deal that got last Saturday only works if you were in the Toronto area this past weekend.

- Daniel

[AAvK]

...and then while you're outside your carry-all they'll weigh YOU and take that into account too! ...make your gringo ass illegal! Oh yes oh yes!

Alex

[Lobby Dosser]

You might want to mike your tinfoil, looks like you need a double layer.

[John DeBoo]

What an asshoile - must be a seperatist french canadian! Are you ignorant or apathetic, and don't say "I don't know and I don't care."

[Rob Stokes]

Implying I do?

Wipe that stupid off your face and give it up Robert... If you don't like the way LV does business, don't do business with them. It's really that simple. LV's management doesn't have to answer to you or anybody. It's their company, it's a private company and they can do with it what they see fit. You seem to think they owe you some sort of preferential treatment because they're a Canadian company....sounds like the exact attitude of entitlement that epitomizes too many things in this great nation. I get truly sick when I think of all my hard earned tax dollars going to support the likes of you and makes me wonder if the seeing the results of the "survival of the fittest" pendulum having swung too far.

As I said before, you're an idiot and an embarrassment to all Canadians who cover your ass.

[Robert]

Canadians still paid more. There has never been a point in at least the last two years where Canadians didn't pay more than Americans.

[Robert]

It's funny I never read this from you when people call Craftsman (as an example) tools junk. I guess there's one set of rules for Sears and another for Lee Valley hey?

Lee Valley can do as they like. And I have the right to point out their crappy business practices in this group.

[Charlie Self]

Nonsense. It wouldn't work. The gas I bought in BC would certainly add weight coming back to the US, as will the quart of oil I added. The mud I picked up will do so, too. Conversely, the mud I wash off in Georgeville, PQ won't come back through Derby Line with me, so the vehicle is lighter, and I didn't need to buy gas, because the place I was going was only 15 miles over the border from Vermont.

Who fed you that one?

Charlie Self "It is inaccurate to say that I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for public office." H. L. Mencken