Ordering Spalding from Canada

[Guest]

Has anyone from Canada placed an order from the Spalding website? I want to place an order soon and I will cough up the shipping and taxes but the brokers fees mentioned in the website scare me since I have never had an order that I needed to pay brokers fees before. I do have the option of having it shipped to my friend in the US and have her ship USPS but thought I would find out what's involved first if I order and have it shipped directly, if anyone knows. Thanks :).

[Colleen in NS]

Has anyone from Canada placed an order from the Spalding website? I want to place an order soon and I will cough up the shipping and taxes but the brokers fees mentioned in the website scare me since I have never had an order that I needed to pay brokers fees before. I do have the option of having it shipped to my friend in the US and have her ship USPS but thought I would find out what's involved first if I order and have it shipped directly, if anyone knows. Thanks :).

 

I ordered the pronunciation tape and the set of phonogram cards, but it was quite a few years ago - around 2003 or so? I don't remember having to pay for broker fees, though. If I were you, I'd just have it shipped to your friend. I do this sometimes when an amazon seller won't ship to Canada - I have a book shipped to my sister in NC, and she ships it to me via USPS. I've never had to pay broker fees.

 

One more thought - if you are just buying the WRTR book, you can get it here in Canada - I bought mine from amazon or chapters online.

[Guest]

I ordered the pronunciation tape and the set of phonogram cards, but it was quite a few years ago - around 2003 or so? I don't remember having to pay for broker fees, though. If I were you, I'd just have it shipped to your friend. I do this sometimes when an amazon seller won't ship to Canada - I have a book shipped to my sister in NC, and she ships it to me via USPS. I've never had to pay broker fees.

 

One more thought - if you are just buying the WRTR book, you can get it here in Canada - I bought mine from amazon or chapters online.

 

Wow you're fast Colleen :)! Thanks, I am beginning to think that it may be best to just ship to my friend. I just hate being a burden since she has done this for me several times even though she doesn't mind. Didn't UPS charge you for dealing with customs for you? Their website mentions brokers fees, this is why I thought I would ask. If they shipped USPS like Rainbow does, then I know that USPS charges $5 but UPS I have no idea.

 

I have the 5th Edition already :D. I bought it from Bookdepository a few months ago. So I do have that but thank you for mentioning it.

[Colleen in NS]

Didn't UPS charge you for dealing with customs for you? Their website mentions brokers fees, this is why I thought I would ask. If they shipped USPS like Rainbow does, then I know that USPS charges $5 but UPS I have no idea.

 

My sister shipped it via the United States Postal Service, not United Parcel Service. And, my sister has never mentioned the USPS charging an extra $5 for dealing with customs - she would have mentioned it to me (she knows I'm frugal). But I've never had to pay customs fees when she ships things to me.

[mommy4ever]

IF shipping from the US to Canada VIA UPS, unless the company(Spalding) charges you gst, you're looking at a $50 broker fee+ taxes on everything. If it is through Fedex, it'll be $35 + tax. And Canada Post/USPS is $5 + tax, but Canada Post doesn't always charge, due to materials being Education based(if I remember correctly). I haven't had a customs fee all the stuff I ordered this past year(through the post office)

 

Some companies do courier to border and postal from there. It is by far cheaper to ship through post even if you do get charged for customs.

[Guest]

IF shipping from the US to Canada VIA UPS, unless the company(Spalding) charges you gst, you're looking at a $50 broker fee+ taxes on everything. If it is through Fedex, it'll be $35 + tax. And Canada Post/USPS is $5 + tax, but Canada Post doesn't always charge, due to materials being Education based(if I remember correctly). I haven't had a customs fee all the stuff I ordered this past year(through the post office)

 

Some companies do courier to border and postal from there. It is by far cheaper to ship through post even if you do get charged for customs.

 

:scared: That's what I was afraid of! Thank you for posting this! My shipping would be just over $20 + $50 (Spalding only ships UPS it seems, from their site) + GST :scared:! I don't think so! I think I'll be shipping through my friend ;). The cost to her would be half of what they would charge me for shipping and then I would have the added cost of her shipping to me. So far I have not paid anything for stuff shipped to me overseas from my parents and from the US from my friend (broker fees or GST).

 

I do have to pay full GST and the $5 handling fee to USPS for my Rainbow orders though. Rainbow does not collect and submit the GST directly like Amazon does though and neither does Spalding it seems. It is worthwhile because Rainbow only charges me 8% shipping since I always wait and place large orders. Then for small orders I have Bookdepository. They do not charge shipping and since they are a UK company my books come straight into my mailbox and I don't pay GST for those. Their prices are good for some items and of course they don't carry the homeschool programs that I would want, so they are good for RA's, readers etc. Sometimes they work out to be much cheaper than Amazon.ca because I don't have to pay GST. Anyway, I know what I have to do now. Thank you :D.

Edited March 8, 2011 by Guest

[Guest]

My sister shipped it via the United States Postal Service, not United Parcel Service. And, my sister has never mentioned the USPS charging an extra $5 for dealing with customs - she would have mentioned it to me (she knows I'm frugal). But I've never had to pay customs fees when she ships things to me.

 

I see what you mean now Colleen. I have had to pay the $5 to Canada Post and the GST for our Rainbow orders, as I explained in my previous post. It is Canada Post that charges the $5 when the parcel gets here. They do not charge for private shipments though. Just for direct company orders. Now I am thinking that this would be another benefit shipping through my friend. I would probably not have to pay the GST either :D. Thank you for you input :).

[mommy4ever]

They can charge GST on private packages. It ALL goes through customs, it just depends on who is handling the packages and if they want to do it.

 

I've had multiple orders come, CLE LA, Analytical grammar, and several others, and never was charged through customs. It's all good ;)

 

Noella

[Guest]

They can charge GST on private packages. It ALL goes through customs, it just depends on who is handling the packages and if they want to do it.

 

Well, since I anticipated the GST anyway, it's ok if they do :). The $50 to UPS for broker fees though I am definitely not willing to pay ;).

 

I've had multiple orders come, CLE LA, Analytical grammar, and several others, and never was charged through customs. It's all good ;)

 

Noella

 

You mean not even GST :001_cool:? Wow, that is great! My friend sent me a package UPS at some point and I did not have to pay anything because it was private I assume. I don't know. My Rainbow orders are usually one huge box or two large ones. I doubt they would ever be willing to let that slide :tongue_smilie:.

[mommy4ever]

Ok, I did some snooping. According the NAFTA: Canadians do not have to pay duty on most American and Mexican manufactured items.

 

this would explain why I haven't paid any Customs on what I've ordered, it has all been made in the US. If the items you have purchases were made and printed in the US, you could appeal any customs fees you've been charged.

 

It's good to know! I have a few more packages coming, and all are curriculum, all printed in our trade partners home country!

 

You said personal, I found that if it is valued under $60 then you don't need to pay duty on it.

 

I guess technically there is GST, but if the customs officer at the border sees it says it's clear, then it is :)

[Guest]

Ok, I did some snooping. According the NAFTA: Canadians do not have to pay duty on most American and Mexican manufactured items.

 

this would explain why I haven't paid any Customs on what I've ordered, it has all been made in the US. If the items you have purchases were made and printed in the US, you could appeal any customs fees you've been charged.

 

It's good to know! I have a few more packages coming, and all are curriculum, all printed in our trade partners home country!

 

You said personal, I found that if it is valued under $60 then you don't need to pay duty on it.

 

I guess technically there is GST, but if the customs officer at the border sees it says it's clear, then it is :)

 

I can't really say that I am that clear on how things work but when we first moved back to Canada I researched it a bit and found out that for items made in the US we do pay GST but we do not have to pay any other added duties. The broker fees do not go to the government, they go to the carrier. This is up to the courier company that the supplier is dealing with and what their counterpart here in Canada wishes to collect as broker fees for handling the customs paperwork and submitting the GST for our orders. I also found out that the cheapest on broker fees (or handling fees I think they call it) is the post office but could not pin down an exact figure for UPS and Fedex since it seems to vary. I was not about to pay that anyway :tongue_smilie: so made up my mind I would do what I have to do in order to avoid the broker fees.

 

When we switched over to the HST I researched it again briefly to see if we would now have to pay both PST and GST built into the new HST, but found out that the HST for books only includes the GST portion (5%). With my Rainbow orders and since they do not collect the GST and submit it for us we have had to pay the GST plus the $5 handling fee to the post office here. With Amazon.com (I had a small order at some point last year) and Amazon.ca, they collect the GST up front and submit it directly. Those packages are just dropped at the front door or in the mailbox. No handling fee there since Amazon has already taken care of collecting and submitting the GST.

 

When you mention duties, do you mean added duties on top of the GST? Would you mind giving me a link if you remember where you read this if this includes the GST?

 

All our curricula and books are printed in the US to my knowledge :) but the orders from Rainbow are large (over $500 before shipping costs) since I try to pay as little as possible on shipping. They are never small packages so that is probably why I would assume.

 

ETA: Yikes! Time for bed, it is after 2:30 here.

Edited March 9, 2011 by Guest

[Colleen in NS]

It is Canada Post that charges the $5 when the parcel gets here. They do not charge for private shipments though. Just for direct company orders.

 

Ah, now I get what you're saying, too. I was not cluing in to the part about private vs. company shipping. Very rarely I've direct ordered from a company in the States (Memoria Press comes to mind), and I guess it does just depend on who's on duty at the border, because I still don't ever remember paying fees.

 

I do know the bit about we being able to receive "gifts" valued at $60 and under. But recently, my aunt in California sent me a few heirlooms from my Nana, and she put the value as $100 - I still wasn't charged anything. Whoohooo!!!

[Guest]

Ah, now I get what you're saying, too. I was not cluing in to the part about private vs. company shipping. Very rarely I've direct ordered from a company in the States (Memoria Press comes to mind), and I guess it does just depend on who's on duty at the border, because I still don't ever remember paying fees.

 

I do know the bit about we being able to receive "gifts" valued at $60 and under. But recently, my aunt in California sent me a few heirlooms from my Nana, and she put the value as $100 - I still wasn't charged anything. Whoohooo!!!

 

I usually order from US suppliers but I always try to deal with companies that give me better shipping rates and companies that I can get most of what I need from. Prior to Rainbow we used to order from SL, Amazon and CBD. Then I found Rainbow and stuck with them.

 

Much as it saddens me not to give the business to Canadian companies, it irks me to see the kind of money they want plus shipping, especially when the CAD is higher than the USD. Ordering from the US has always spelled savings for me even with the GST and shipping added, compared to ordering from Canadian suppliers. I also buy PDF's where I can (for some things) and avoid the shipping altogether. I do order from Canada (Amazon.ca so far but will be getting Modern History Through Canadian Eyes from the publisher later this year) but only Canadian content books, which are cheaper to buy from here.

 

It is great having my friend in the US but it would be nuts having her deal with the kind of orders I usually place since I don't order/ buy locally. So, I ship to her when I have no other options, like with Spalding now :).

 

It's cool that you didn't have to pay anything for your package :001_cool: . My friend sent some gifts for the boys not too long ago and a couple of other things (can't remember if she had to put a value but I assume she did), the items were over $60, and she UPSed it but we still did not have to pay anything. Not even GST. Not sure what it depends on. I guess at the end of the day it does depend on the person dealing with it at customs and the kind of mood they are in :lol:. I am also guessing that perhaps for smaller packages it just isn't cost effective for them to have to do the paperwork and have to collect the funds, so they just use their discretion. However, if I were to place a whole bunch of smaller orders, with the items I order and even if my friend were to ship them to us, my shipping costs would shoot through the roof, so I would probably end up paying more :tongue_smilie:. Actually, I am pretty sure of it and you never know if you will save the GST in the end or not anyway. I doubt we will avoid the GST on the Spalding order. The value is just too high but if it happens, hey, I will gladly take it ;).

 

Thanks for sharing your experience with me :).

[mommy4ever]

This is from one of homeschool boards:

 

http://www.wisdomhomeschooling.com/images/stories/pdf/InfoApr09.pdf

 

At the end of the pdf, there are 3 pages of Canadian homeschool suppliers.

 

Due to this list,I just realize that one place I order from in the US has a Canadian distributor, so the order goes through them, hence no customs fees, and excellent shipping costs.

 

I'm not with this school board, but am considering them, which is how I found it.

[Guest]

This is from one of homeschool boards:

 

http://www.wisdomhomeschooling.com/images/stories/pdf/InfoApr09.pdf

 

At the end of the pdf, there are 3 pages of Canadian homeschool suppliers.

 

Due to this list,I just realize that one place I order from in the US has a Canadian distributor, so the order goes through them, hence no customs fees, and excellent shipping costs.

 

I'm not with this school board, but am considering them, which is how I found it.

 

Thank you for this :). May I be nosy and ask which supplier has the good shipping you mentioned? Feel free to PM me if you prefer. If I could find certain things for reasonable prices here I would not mind using a Canadian supplier for some of our resources. Mind you I am in BC so I am thinking the shipping costs may also depend on province (meaning how far you live from the supplier).

[SnMomof7]

Canada Post/USPS = Woohoo! Either $5 or $8 plus G.S.T. - that's it

UPS = WAY too expensive!!! Normally 50 - 100% of your order total

 

RUN AWAY!!!!!!

HIDDEN COSTS!

CHARGE YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!!

 

Whew. Bad memories.

[SnMomof7]

 

I'm not with this school board, but am considering them, which is how I found it.

 

Hey, I'm considering Wisdom too for next year! Hello fellow Albertan!

[mommy4ever]

Hey, I'm considering Wisdom too for next year! Hello fellow Albertan!

 

Who are you with this year?

[Guest]

Canada Post/USPS = Woohoo! Either $5 or $8 plus G.S.T. - that's it

UPS = WAY too expensive!!! Normally 50 - 100% of your order total

 

RUN AWAY!!!!!!

HIDDEN COSTS!

CHARGE YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!!

 

Whew. Bad memories.

 

Thank you Jennifer. Definitely running away from UPS :lol:! That's exactly what I was afraid of and why I posted the question. Thank you for your input :).

[SnMomof7]

Heehee. I just dropped in to spy on what you are ordering ;). I've never purchased from Spalding at all, but when I saw the words UPS, I had a bit of a freak out!

 

Mommy4ever - we're in our second year with Education Unlimited, another traditional board. I'm happy with how things have gone, but they are very basic. They send a newsletter 2x/yr, we see our facilitator twice, and that's about it! I'm thinking of Wisdom because they have...more. They do more fellowshipping together as a board and associated families, send out a magazine more frequently, hold workshops, online courses, and they have a classical philosophy backbone.

 

Education Unlimited is very easy to work with, and they've been great, but I'm looking for a bit...more for next year as I get more serious about a classical education.

[mommy4ever]

 

Mommy4ever - we're in our second year with Education Unlimited, another traditional board. I'm happy with how things have gone, but they are very basic. They send a newsletter 2x/yr, we see our facilitator twice, and that's about it! I'm thinking of Wisdom because they have...more. They do more fellowshipping together as a board and associated families, send out a magazine more frequently, hold workshops, online courses, and they have a classical philosophy backbone.

 

Education Unlimited is very easy to work with, and they've been great, but I'm looking for a bit...more for next year as I get more serious about a classical education.

 

We were aligned this year for all 3 girls. DD 13 will remain aligned next year, but for the other 2, I'm seriously leaning to traditional. We were with School of Hope this year. DD13 has done very well. It was a battle to get dd11 to just do it. She is done her grade 6 year, except for math, which she is doing with me, the other things she did with the school board curriculum, she found very boring. So she's said can we do more parent led. :lol: when we sat down an looked, she didn't want to do ANYTHING with the school board.

 

So I'm sitting here going.... maybe we just go traditional with dd7 and dd11 and move to Wisdom, but if dd13 stays with School of Hope, it may be easier to just keep them all there. I haven't had a lot of support through School of Hope with dd7, even though I'm aligned, as I picked my own curriculum. I just have the stress of trying to figure out if we're meeting all the guidelines.

 

But the funding gets cut in 1/2. LOL. I like that extra to do activities with the kids.

 

However, if I plot it out carefully, I should be able to cover what we want to do.

[SnMomof7]

Ah, we are used to traditional funding, but I ALWAYS spend more than that (left you a comment on your blog saying how I always go WAY over!) I only have 1 formally funded, so it's $770 or so/yr. BUT, it's worth us not to have people trying to dictate what we need to cover, so much less stress for me :). I get to determine, together with my children how much we get done, what materials we cover, what approach/philosophy we take etc. :) I'm a big fan of traditional, I could never go aligned!

[mommy4ever]

Ah, we are used to traditional funding, but I ALWAYS spend more than that (left you a comment on your blog saying how I always go WAY over!) I only have 1 formally funded, so it's $770 or so/yr. BUT, it's worth us not to have people trying to dictate what we need to cover, so much less stress for me :). I get to determine, together with my children how much we get done, what materials we cover, what approach/philosophy we take etc. :) I'm a big fan of traditional, I could never go aligned!

 

This was our first year. There was pressure from the extended family. And in many ways it was less stressful. I know we are on track. But now with the experience, I don't think I need to all the little stuff that the board requires. Heck, I'm into Classical schooling, I KNOW the kids will be learning. Whether it means we're aligned or not. So I'm really leaning to traditional for the younger of the 2. The older wants to remain as aligned, so I'm wondering if there are a few areas she might want to do parent led.

[Guest]

Heehee. I just dropped in to spy on what you are ordering ;). I've never purchased from Spalding at all, but when I saw the words UPS, I had a bit of a freak out!

 

Not a problem. Feel free to add your thoughts any day my fellow Canadian :D.

[Guest]

We were aligned this year for all 3 girls. DD 13 will remain aligned next year, but for the other 2, I'm seriously leaning to traditional. We were with School of Hope this year. DD13 has done very well. It was a battle to get dd11 to just do it. She is done her grade 6 year, except for math, which she is doing with me, the other things she did with the school board curriculum, she found very boring. So she's said can we do more parent led. :lol: when we sat down an looked, she didn't want to do ANYTHING with the school board.

 

So I'm sitting here going.... maybe we just go traditional with dd7 and dd11 and move to Wisdom, but if dd13 stays with School of Hope, it may be easier to just keep them all there. I haven't had a lot of support through School of Hope with dd7, even though I'm aligned, as I picked my own curriculum. I just have the stress of trying to figure out if we're meeting all the guidelines.

 

But the funding gets cut in 1/2. LOL. I like that extra to do activities with the kids.

 

However, if I plot it out carefully, I should be able to cover what we want to do.

 

Ah, we are used to traditional funding, but I ALWAYS spend more than that (left you a comment on your blog saying how I always go WAY over!) I only have 1 formally funded, so it's $770 or so/yr. BUT, it's worth us not to have people trying to dictate what we need to cover, so much less stress for me :). I get to determine, together with my children how much we get done, what materials we cover, what approach/philosophy we take etc. :) I'm a big fan of traditional, I could never go aligned!

 

The highlighted are the things going through my head this year as this is the first year homeschooling here in Canada.

 

Here you either register as a homeschooler, no one dictates what you do but you get no funding (about $250 for Internet usage I think, if that much) or you enroll in a DL (Distributed Learning) program where you can still pick your own curricula but have to report regularly and you get $1,000 funding.

 

I have had no support that I can speak of. Our teacher is nice, yes, but I have not had any sort of guidance from them. I covered certain things at the start of the year that I knew we were not going to get to with our choice of curricula and then when we got our first report she had given Adrian 2 out of 4 on PATTERNING :001_huh:. I flipped out! Adrian has been past the level of the requirements since he was 4 to 4 1/2. She never asked me anything or said anything, she just gave him the grade. Needless to say there was some back and forth and the 2 was quickly changed to a 4. But I have felt extremely pulled in various directions with what to do. I have had to interrupt our studies to a certain degree and mess up my schedule in order to meet certain PLO's that I knew we wouldn't get to with our curricula. It really irks me but I have no choice if I want the funding and have my son get good grades.

 

ETA: Ooops, I hit the submit too soon :tongue_smilie: and had to add some comments after the fact.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Guest

[Guest]

I am in the process of investigating other schools for next year. I have considered giving up the funding but given that we went over (with only Adrian currently since Malcolm is too young) the funding by at least another $1,000, the funding is nice to have than having to shell out $2,000. Still working on this...

[mommy4ever]

I am in the process of investigating other schools for next year. I have considered giving up the funding but given that we went over (with only Adrian currently since Malcolm is too young) the funding by at least another $1,000, the funding is nice to have than having to shell out $2,000. Still working on this...

 

I am doing some re-thinking too. I had thought dd11 liked the school curriculum, but in the end she really did despise it.

 

What I am considering.... more pdf's for the older girls, so that it is handed down to the youngest. FLL 3& 4. WWE. I have the math mammoth. I have others too. Why? Yes it costs to print, but I get ink on EBAY, for dirt cheap. I can print nearly 1500 pages on fast draft. I also have the option of printing only a few things. Yes we might miss out on updates, but not the end of the world, and most publishers will have an area with errors. I make up books with the comb binder, so that everything is tidy and manageable.

 

I'll post more thoughts. I have an appointment to get to.

[SnMomof7]

Another thing to consider is that here in Alberta at least, and it sounds like in B.C. too, unless you register as a traditional homeschooler, you aren't legally considered to be homeschooling. Instead you are considered to be enrolled with a school that chooses the curriculum, and you as the parent aren't in control, you are only administering the program of studies. I know that when the rubber hits the road, the parents are still often planning the program of studies, but LEGALLY, the school is. We don't want to have our legal freedoms hampered in any way, so we just take less $$! I'm a control freak - I'M the boss of this homeschool! :LOL:

[Guest]

I am doing some re-thinking too. I had thought dd11 liked the school curriculum, but in the end she really did despise it.

 

What I am considering.... more pdf's for the older girls, so that it is handed down to the youngest. FLL 3& 4. WWE. I have the math mammoth. I have others too. Why? Yes it costs to print, but I get ink on EBAY, for dirt cheap. I can print nearly 1500 pages on fast draft. I also have the option of printing only a few things. Yes we might miss out on updates, but not the end of the world, and most publishers will have an area with errors. I make up books with the comb binder, so that everything is tidy and manageable.

 

I'll post more thoughts. I have an appointment to get to.

 

Yep, I do PDF's as much as I can also :). I had purchased WWE 1 that we are currently using printed but will be getting the workbook for WWE 2 in PDF. I got PDF's for the SOTW AG and FLL and they have worked really well. It will be a lot easier printing WWE next year with the PDF. I had to copy for this year. I also bought RS4K Pre-Level 1 Biology on PDF.

 

I have an HP Photosmart All-in-One and have only ever used HP cartridges. Well, HP does something to the printers so that you cannot use any other. To think, when we came back to Canada we had to have our printer converted in order to accept the Canadian HP cartridges :001_huh:. Our next printer is going to be a Brother I think. Anyway, I spend $40 on cartridges (I only get 220 copies of 5% coverage for black and the same for the color) from Office Depot (the cheapest I have found). This is for one black and one combo color. So far I have used about 3 color (colour ;)) and am ready to put in the fourth. I have used 4 and am now on the 5th black. OK, I print a lot of extras, make flash cards etc. so it does make sense on number of copies but if you calculate the cost you will see it has not been cheap in our case :(.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Guest

[Guest]

Another thing to consider is that here in Alberta at least, and it sounds like in B.C. too, unless you register as a traditional homeschooler, you aren't legally considered to be homeschooling. Instead you are considered to be enrolled with a school that chooses the curriculum, and you as the parent aren't in control, you are only administering the program of studies. I know that when the rubber hits the road, the parents are still often planning the program of studies, but LEGALLY, the school is. We don't want to have our legal freedoms hampered in any way, so we just take less $$! I'm a control freak - I'M the boss of this homeschool! :LOL:

 

I am up there with ya on the control freak thing. The school lets me choose whatever I want in the area of curricula. It was why I went with them this year. I just had to send them my list of curricula. I have not had much input from them at all. I just send them what we have covered, which is why I was irritated when she graded Adrian on something she knew nothing about. She tells me not to worry, that we have up to two years to cover PLO's but of course I am going to ensure that no 2's are ever given to my son again :angry:.

 

It took me 6 weeks to set up my Excel schedule/ lesson plans but since it is very extensive and detailed she could not access the info off of it. This means that I have to sit there and set up another in order to do my reporting. It is taking way too much valuable time that I could be spending with my kids :mad: and I am getting very little sleep. I am now making a weekly schedule on the weekends to have a printed copy in front of me (I was just using my schedule and updating directly on the computer) and will be sending that each week but for next year I think I will be changing schools.

 

ETA: With DL, Adrian is considered like he is a full time student in a brick and mortar school. It is why our school is getting full funding from the government like a brick and mortar student too though. And they are getting way... more than the $1,000 they are giving us.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Guest

[SnMomof7]

Have you looked into buying bulk ink and doing your own refills? That's what my DH does for me!

[Guest]

Have you looked into buying bulk ink and doing your own refills? That's what my DH does for me!

 

I discussed it with my hubby when I saw a thread on it a while back but he said that it could damage the printer and then create maintenance costs. One of his employers overseas used to do that and they had to deal with constant problems with their printers and constant visits from technicians to clean the printers. He doesn't want to mess with a good thing. We print family photos on ours also.

Edited March 12, 2011 by Guest

[SnMomof7]

Good point....we can't get blue out of our printer anymore! We just use our laser if we need quality color prints, and our inkjet for cheap jobs!

[Guest]

Good point....we can't get blue out of our printer anymore! We just use our laser if we need quality color prints, and our inkjet for cheap jobs!

 

I get great quality prints out of this one :) but it comes with a price :tongue_smilie:. I print my own family pics mostly to send to family overseas. I priced some laser printers that I would want to get and we would be looking at $300-$500. I have the Spalding order that I want to place next month and I want to get 3 levels of Rosetta Stone hopefully by September (among everything else for next year) so I don't want to spend on a new printer right now. I am looking at a couple of years down the road for that.

[mommy4ever]

 

I have an HP Photosmart All-in-One and have only ever used HP cartridges. Well, HP does something to the printers so that you cannot use any other. To think, when we came back to Canada we had to have our printer converted in order to accept the Canadian HP cartridges :001_huh:. Our next printer is going to be a Brother I think. Anyway, I spend $40 on cartridges (I only get 220 copies of 5% coverage for black and the same for the color) from Office Depot (the cheapest I have found). This is for one black and one combo color. So far I have used about 3 color (colour ;)) and am ready to put in the fourth. I have used 4 and am now on the 5th black. OK, I print a lot of extras, make flash cards etc. so it does make sense on number of copies but if you calculate the cost you will see it has not been cheap in our case :(.

 

I have an HP and the cartridges I get work fine! I have an AIO, but not a photo one. I've bought cartridges from the US all along, even brand names and no issues.

[mommy4ever]

Oh should have read the full thing.

 

I would invest in a second printer for school printing. Something that wasn't so costly and keep the good printer for pics and scrapbooking.

[Guest]

I have an HP and the cartridges I get work fine! I have an AIO, but not a photo one. I've bought cartridges from the US all along, even brand names and no issues.

 

I have no idea what that was but when I bought cartridges from here (and they were HP) and tried to put them in our printer it would not work. Since it was not purchased in North America, I assume that had something to do with it. I had to contact HP and they sent me instructions to convert it. With all that I forgot I had one cartridge of special photo ink left (it was almost full) and that got wasted :(. I have not attempted to buy any other kind of cartridges other than HP. I have another ink jet (a Canon) but it is small and older and does not print the kind of quality this one does for our school work. I pay the price for being picky :tongue_smilie:.

[Guest]

Oh should have read the full thing.

 

I would invest in a second printer for school printing. Something that wasn't so costly and keep the good printer for pics and scrapbooking.

 

Yep, I hear ya but it's just not in my budget right now. Spalding and then Rosetta Stone are my two top priorities and that is a pretty big investment.

 

I did the bulk of my printing before we started anyway (this is why I have used so much ink already) so for the rest of this year there's very little left to print. Maybe I will reconsider come Christmas :). I would take a printer as a Christmas present anyway. I love my toys :D.

[mommy4ever]

Yep, I hear ya but it's just not in my budget right now. Spalding and then Rosetta Stone are my two top priorities and that is a pretty big investment.

 

I did the bulk of my printing before we started anyway (this is why I have used so much ink already) so for the rest of this year there's very little left to print. Maybe I will reconsider come Christmas :). I would take a printer as a Christmas present anyway. I love my toys :D.

 

 

LOL.. don't we all :)

[Guest]

LOL.. don't we all :)

 

Hmmm... maybe I should start working on hubby now ;).

[Guest]

Hey Jennifer, I am not on the ball at all lately :tongue_smilie:. Congratulations on your little one you had recently :).

[SnMomof7]

Thanks! She's a gem!

[Guest]

I have finally placed our Spalding order :hurray:. The lady said it will be shipping today and I am having it shipped directly to us via USPS. After I went past the initial scare over broker fees I noticed the website said to contact them for USPS shipping. So I did and realized that it would be cheaper and less trouble to just have it shipped directly to our door :D. Can't wait!

 

Off to place our Rosetta Stone order through Amazon.ca :auto:.