I buy my stamps from USPS. I call a toll free number and order them using my credit card.
Up until now I had a friend in the US that I would have them sent to for a $1 shipping charge. He then put them in another envelope and mailed them to me.
I have done that a number of times. But now it's not convenient for him so I ordered from USPS and had them delivered to me here in Canada. There is a $6 charge---which I knew about and was prepared to pay. BUT I wasn't thinking about being dinged for another $8.63 at the Canadian border ($5 handling fee and tax!!!). So to buy around $30 worth of US stamps it cost me around $15 shipping and handling to get it here!!!! Way to frickin' much if you ask me!
I have a few US email friends. I was thinking of asking one of them if there was a post office convenient to where they lived and have them buy them for me. I would mail them the US cash and they would just use that to buy it. I would just get them to remove the stamps from the cardboard packages and put them in a business envelope and give them an extra $1 to cover the cost of the envelope and postage.
That is if they agree to do it. I really hate to ask. I feel like I am bothering them. If it were a fellow collector and they needed Canadian stamps then I could return the favour for them and not feel guilty.
What I do if I can't get stamps, or run out, is just put enough US cash in to cover the return postage. Problem is that if it's vv they wouldn't have time to pop out to the post office to mail it---hence the same problem with IRCs. You can just hope they have an assistant or someone that can do it for them.
Do you know anyone in the US that can buy them for you and you send them the money for it? I looked on ebay but I need $1, $0.41, and $0.05 stamps and I couldn't find any. I'll look again. But you'll still get dinged for handling and tax if it's over $20 CA.

I buy my stamps from USPS. I call a toll free number and order them using my credit card.
Up until now I had a friend in the US that I would have them sent to for a $1 shipping charge. He then put them in another envelope and mailed them to me.
I have done that a number of times. But now it's not convenient for him so I ordered from USPS and had them delivered to me here in Canada. There is a $6 charge---which I knew about and was prepared to pay. BUT I wasn't thinking about being dinged for another $8.63 at the Canadian border ($5 handling fee and tax!!!). So to buy around $30 worth of US stamps it cost me around $15 shipping and handling to get it here!!!! Way to frickin' much if you ask me!
I have a few US email friends. I was thinking of asking one of them if there was a post office convenient to where they lived and have them buy them for me. I would mail them the US cash and they would just use that to buy it. I would just get them to remove the stamps from the cardboard packages and put them in a business envelope and give them an extra $1 to cover the cost of the envelope and postage.
That is if they agree to do it. I really hate to ask. I feel like I am bothering them. If it were a fellow collector and they needed Canadian stamps then I could return the favour for them and not feel guilty.
What I do if I can't get stamps, or run out, is just put enough US cash in to cover the return postage. Problem is that if it's vv they wouldn't have time to pop out to the post office to mail it---hence the same problem with IRCs. You can just hope they have an assistant or someone that can do it for them.
Do you know anyone in the US that can buy them for you and you send them the money for it? I looked on ebay but I need $1, $0.41, and $0.05 stamps and I couldn't find any. I'll look again. But you'll still get dinged for handling and tax if it's over $20 CA. :?