Importing from U.S. and U.S. import marks

RangeRover

RangeRover

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I have some understanding of the process of bringing a milsurp (back) into Canada from the U.S. via the services of Questar or other similar companies, but I'm curious about the views of those here in regards to the hit on value (if any) if the rifle you're buying has a U.S. import mark electro-stenciled or otherwise added to another wise original rifle?

How much less (percentage-wise) would you pay, or would you walk away completely and look for one without the import mark?

Thanks.
 
RangeRover said:
I have some understanding of the process of bringing a milsurp (back) into Canada from the U.S. via the services of Questar or other similar companies, but I'm curious about the views of those here in regards to the hit on value (if any) if the rifle you're buying has a U.S. import mark electro-stenciled or otherwise added to another wise original rifle?

How much less (percentage-wise) would you pay, or would you walk away completely and look for one without the import mark?

Thanks.
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Recently, the cost to import 1 rifle from the US has ballooned to $750. Most of us would find this a profound disincentive to importing anything. Also, Canadian rifles have never had import marks, and seeing rifles that do is kind of unpleasant. Yes, it does hurt the value.
 
If the rifle is something that CAN NOT be obtained in Canada, then an import mark is not too concerning to me. If it is a rifle that can be obtained in Canada, I would walk away from an import marked one and source locally.
 
Like DAR 701 says, if you can get it here, buy it here. There's not much available Stateside that isn't available here and usually at a lower price. Especially with the current exchange rate.
Not all milsurps require the U.S. export permit either. There's a list of the firearms on the U.S. 'restricted for export' list on Gunparts' site. Under 'Ship outside the US' on the left side menu.
U.S. importer's marks will drop the value nearly in half.
You going to tell us what it is?
 
Not everything coming from the US has import marks either, ask the seller, don't just assume. The two no.4 LBs I repatriated last season are clean, as I am sure most of his stock is.
 
$750? :eek:

Obviously there's more to this than I thought (never having tried this before). I thought, perhaps naively, it was just a matter of ploughing through the government form filling in the blanks. How does that cost break down? Is that what the government wants to file the IIC?

I'm not chasing down one-off items here, but just trying to deepen the pool of milsurps in which to fish, and perhaps speed the acquisition process (you know...when you wake up one morning and say..."what's missing from my life is a 1943 [insert random milsurp here]...") and you've got to have it that very day. That cost is certainly a disincentive - and the U.S. import marks equally so, IMO.

cantom said:
Recently, the cost to import 1 rifle from the US has ballooned to $750. Most of us would find this a profound disincentive to importing anything. Also, Canadian rifles have never had import marks, and seeing rifles that do is kind of unpleasant. Yes, it does hurt the value.
Click to expand...
 
It doesn't have to be that expensive. There are plenty of other ways to import that cost a lot less, but require you to do a little more work. Last I checked, an FFL transfer from a licensed American dealer cost about $25, but for some reason it never seems to get discussed on CGN.

As for import marks, not all guns in the U.S. have them. Plenty don't, and if they do, they are often small, and discreet, in out of the way locations. However, the skyrocketing price of milsurps stateside doesn't really make it worthwhile.
 
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ollie said:
It doesn't have to be that expensive. There are plenty of other ways to import that cost a lot less, but require you to do a little more work. Last I checked, an FFL transfer from a licensed American dealer cost about $25, but for some reason it never seems to get discussed on CGN.
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please tell me more?
 
ollie said:
It doesn't have to be that expensive. There are plenty of other ways to import that cost a lot less, but require you to do a little more work. Last I checked, an FFL transfer from a licensed American dealer cost about $25, but for some reason it never seems to get discussed on CGN.
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It never gets discussed on CGN because there just aren't any American FFL's who are willing to export to private Canadian citizens. The Canadian end of the deal is fairly painless, but the US government has a lot of hoops that need jumping through, and no FFL's are willing to do that just to send a rifle to Canada, especially when they can sell it without any hassle to an American. This is why Questar had such a corner on the market, because they had a sister company in the US who would transfer to their Canadian company.

Recently though the US government raised the price on exporting rifles into Canada, hence the huge bill now.

There is no way to get around the fees, even if you happen to find an FFL who basically wants to do you a favour by dealing with you.
 
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ollie said:
It doesn't have to be that expensive. There are plenty of other ways to import that cost a lot less, but require you to do a little more work. Last I checked, an FFL transfer from a licensed American dealer cost about $25, but for some reason it never seems to get discussed on CGN.

As for import marks, not all guns in the U.S. have them. Plenty don't, and if they do, they are often small, and discreet, in out of the way locations. However, the skyrocketing price of milsurps stateside doesn't really make it worthwhile.
Click to expand...

An application to export costs $250US. Either your info is dated, or incorrect.
 
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