Question-Card Collection in Canada

[BobC]

Originally Posted by dagooch

Has anyone who's a US citizen picked up a card collection in Canada and brought it back on the airplane? What are the rules and regulations? Customs or Duty? It's hard to find the info online. 1000's of cards $100k plus in total.

This may help.

https://www.ezbordercrossing.com/the...at-to-declare/

https://www.ezbordercrossing.com/the...-will-it-cost/

There doesn't seem to be an exact number you can come up with to determine what you may owe as a duty when coming back into the U.S. It may actually behoove you to contact U.S. Custom services and get an advance estimate from them, so you know what you might be looking at, and what proof you may need to verify what you actually paid for something (in this case a card collection) you will be considered as importing into the U.S. Another thought may be to look into going up to view and then purchase the collection, and then maybe see what it would cost to have it shipped back to you from Canada. Duty would still be technically owed, so shipping it wouldn't necessarily save you any money but could save you the border/customs hassle then. Would also understand maybe not wanting to ship something like that back across the border, and let such a valuable collection out of your sight and take the added chance of damage/loss in shipping it.

Also may want to find out if the seller is going to be declaring this for tax purposes in Canada or not. If questioned as to what you paid for the collection at the border, a person not wanting to report this for tax purposes is not likely to be giving you a formal receipt or sale, or necessarily wanting to share what you paid someone for the collection. Coming back, you end up paying duty to the U.S. officials, not to Canadian officials. But the U.S. and Canadian border officials likely work together and share info. So going to the U.S. Customs officials and telling you paid say $100K for the collection, they may end up asking you for proof and/or who it was that you may have made the purchase from. If they follow up with Canadian officials, your seller may not be real happy with you. Last thing you want to do is get ion trouble with border officials.

I personally haven't done what you're looking to do, and hopefully some others here on the forum that have done this can chime in and offer more/better advice as well. Good luck on the purchase