I am a hobbyist in the “GTA” area of Canada. I recently completed my first PCB design for which I ordered bare boards from JLCPCB. Pricing looked great for fabrication, but then the matter of shipping came up. I chose DHL because it looked the least expensive (apart from Global Standard Direct Line, which seemed a bit sketchy to me). I just got a notification from DHL for customs… the duty was not a concern, only a few dollars, but the customs clearance fee (~$20) was more than the shipping charge ($17.50), which was already about as much as the fab cost (~$18).
This leads me to ask about comparable services to JLCPCB or PCBWay which are either located in Canada or have economical shipping options after all costs (including customs clearance) are factored in. Obviously, for a high-value shipment, about $40 all-in to ship might not be a big deal, but for something relatively low-value, it really inflates the total cost.
To be a viable option, I would be looking for something where, just like I did for my JLCPCB order, I can simply upload gerber/drill files, choose my fab options/quantities and ship method, and get a hopefully low price.
As another possibility: One of the JLCPCB shipping options is “My UPS account”. Does having your own UPS account mitigate the customs fee, and does it make sense for a hobbyist who may only be placing orders very rarely?
This isn’t really KiCad related, so eevblog or similar would be more appropriate. As a quick (partial) answer though, I think a lot of people have gotten spoiled by JLC and PCBWay. There just isn’t any way to do stuff that cheap with that much customization anywhere else. If the $20 is a significant chunk of money, you will probably be hard pressed to find cheaper locally. I’d expect to pay hundreds for a batch of “regular” bare boards from local providers in the US (oshpark on the low/slow end). I’m afraid I don’t know of any specific providers in Canada though.
The way I am viewing the economics: if I am iterating on a design or just tinkering, that’s a bunch of cheap production orders (maybe 10 to 50 pieces per order) with attached shipping costs that are going to add up. Given a stable design for which hundreds if not thousands of copies would be built, sure, a larger order will be more economical and shipping/import costs would be of little concern.
I wonder though what happens if you choose Global Standard Direct? Do you have to clear it yourself and pay the post office the customs fee, or what? I don’t mind that it takes 7-10 days to arrive in Australia, my projects are not that urgent. Fortunately we don’t have customs fees. AliExpress GST/VAT is collected by AliExpress, but Chinese PCB fabs fly under the radar, 10% of a hobbyist order is too small to be worth collecting.
I had to look up GTA. Grand Theft Auto? Ah no, probably Greater Toronto Area. So GTA area is Greater Toronto Area area. That’s RAS syndrome which itself is an example.
DHL with DDP (prepaid customs) is available from both PCBWay and JLCPCB, but it costs (I believe) about $20 extra, so I don’t think you really save money there, although you do save the hassle of having to respond to their notice with another credit card payment.
You are right in that shipping + brokerage seems exorbitant compared with the cost of goods, but that is just because the cost is so low. If you end up finding an actual Canadian source that comes to less than $200 for a low quantity PCB order, please let me know.
To Australia, this is normal Air Mail. Like the Old Cat, I’m also happy with the longer delivery cheaper post.
The 5 X 100mm sq. PCBs are US$ 1.50 by GSD (7 - 10 days) or US$ 18.50 by DHL (3 days).
Also DHL collect the GST (including for post) so the total is $ 2.00 + $18.50 + $2.05 = US$ 22.55 whereas GSD is $2.00 + $ 1.50 = US$ 3.50.
Ahh, if only 20 bucks was the biggest adder on my pcb orders, and if only I was still in Canada (where I was born, but sadly gave up my citizenship) and not in the land of bankrupt small businesses. I have used pcbway and jlcpcb for many years, and they are (well, were) awesome for bare boards and assemblies. I am sitting on large orders that I need to place but cannot afford anymore ($5000 x 2.4 = impossible). Ahh, if only 20 bucks.
I only paid a combined 175% tariff for the boards I ordered from JLCPCB in mid April, and that was before the most recent chickening-out. I would have waited but they were for a project with a deadline (and I wasn’t footing the bill).
I almost always use Elecrow, they use China Post for shipping simple orders (one of their options and very cheap) but it depends on the value of the order. I live in Spain so I don´t know what it will be like for Canada. I did use JLCPCB for an order once that was shipped via DHL Express (joke!) it got stuck in Germany for nearly 3 weeks (no explanation), almost the time it took to place an order and get it delivered from Elecrow.
For example I recently ordered 2 different 2 layer PCB´s roughly 100x100mm, 10 of each with SMD stencils. Total with shipping $44.01
I put Spain and Global Standard Direct shipping and it quoted USD1.50. I put Canada and it was also USD1.50. Don’t know how the customs charge is handled. These are for 5 pieces.
That’s 