250% has to be exaggeration. I've never had more than like 40.
If the item is made in USA then there should be NO DUTY. There can be however 1) Canadian tax (GST/HST dep on your prov) but it's exempt if value is <C$90, which is a BS low threshold - they were talking about raising it... you can also break up orders to keep individual packages under the threshold but then the shipping can kill it), and 2) a brokerage fee for the shipper to do the paperwork for that/ duty by country of origin. USPS got sued by other carriers for that 'unfair market advantage' of not charging a fee, so lately USPS has been doing a bit more, but it was a pyrrhic victory because the private carriers were exposed as profiting off these fees which were sometimes exorbitant so they have been forced to be more reasonable as part of the deal and to compete with USPS (flat rate, so easily absorbed in a large order), but as mentioned above basic USPS is still the best EXCEPT that some bigger retailers have partnered with e.g. UPS, to offer -all-in pre calculated shipping/tax/duty 'no surprise fees' type service (see RedCo and TubeDepot/some of the other larger Amp parts suppliers). Kinda like ebay's Global Shipping program except none of the shitty parts of that 'service' (that is a thread all unto itself).
For stuff made in Asia (hardware) buy direct (and ship reg post) to save on duties - I don't know why that works, and maybe it's just me and my small $$ parts orders from China/Thailand, but when I order stuff from Redco in the US they go item by item and duty it up (maybe due to diff source countries, the stuff I get from Redco that isn't MIUSA is made in Korea/Vietnam etc). Ordering from China is great due to their subsidised mail system so shipping is dirt cheap and ordering a small $5 part is totally feasible cuz if not free ship from seller then only like $1.50 unless that $5 part is stupid big/heavy and no tax/duty since <90.
