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Hey everybody, I swapped with somebody here, wondering how long I can reasonably expect to wait for something to get to the US from Canada using the post office instead of Fedex/UPS. It was ideally supposed to be here last friday.

If you got tracking it should take at most two weeks. If you didn't get tracking it can sometimes take over a month, depending on customs.

Please note that the Swap Shop is intended only for actual trade threads. Any other threads relating to questions about trading, etc. should be directed toward the Dakka Discusssions board (to which I will move this thread).

Having said that, I dunno how long things get held up in customs, but as twinner said, it can take some time.

If you've allowed, or agreed to, a non tracked shipment method, then I hope your trade partner is a good egg, as "lost in customs" is an oldie, but really hard to argue against.

If you've got a tracking number, perhaps there's somewhere you could call to get an estimate?

twinner wrote:
If you got tracking it should take at most two weeks. If you didn't get tracking it can sometimes take over a month, depending on customs.

This has been my experience, as well. If not using UPS/FedEx, it can be as short as a week or as long as a month.

Canada ---> US usually is not that bad. 1-2 weeks usually is the norm if the customs ticket is in order.

US ---> Canada is a bloody nightmare. I've had trades take 8-10 weeks to make it to destination before.

I've been on bartertown for many years... i pretty much refuse to do trades north of the border. It's simply not worth the headaches to deal with the Canadian Post.


If you can, use UPS rather than USPS. It will cut down the transit time to a week or so using standard ground, and you get tracking. It's a bit pricier, but worth it.

 Jin wrote:
Please note that the Swap Shop is intended only for actual trade threads. Any other threads relating to questions about trading, etc. should be directed toward the Dakka Discusssions board (to which I will move this thread).

Having said that, I dunno how long things get held up in customs, but as twinner said, it can take some time.

Thank you for moving it, wasn't really sure where it belonged.

The person I'm trading with is supposedly very good, apparently the list has him at 11 successful trades. However he has not responded to any of my posts asking for a tracking number. Thanks for all the responses everybody!

After about 2 weeks of non reply I would post a bad trader report.