WD no longer selling to Canadians/ WD distro'd by Yorkville.

[12xu]

If someone were to do this and WD found out, they would lose their account in mighty short order. Just a friendly public service announcement.


My pet theory is this has to do with sales tax losses. There may be pressures from various agencies to clamp down on sales that skirt provincial and federal taxes. What made me come up with this is when ebay started pushing the third party pitney bowes shipping (global priority). 'Import fees/duties' are collected alongside the shipping fee. Even when the items are duty free. The mystery fees always seem to be about what the tax would be. Whether these fees are then directed to the appropriate agencies is also a mystery.
If same item is shipped USPS, there may or may not be taxes collected by Canada Post, kind of hit or miss.

Anything over $100 dollars is taxable. USPS is pretty decent for taxes and fees.

Fedex and UPS ground are horrible, you'll end up paying 30% in fees to get your package. You can avoid these fees by using UPS or FedEx air...cost more to ship, but less in fees.


The WD thing had nothing to do with taxes.

Canada is a small market, utterly dominated by one chain....so much so that if it were in the states, the govt would have probably broken them up....I got the numbers from Industry Canada, it's shocking.


WD is seeing their distributor fill orders for 80 stores, so it's all good for them, but those stores a re owned y the same company that owns their distributor. They can mark the prices up however they like, it's all going back to the same pot. YV might have a handful of small independent stores they sell to, but mostly in small towns.

A lot of small repair shops would sell WD and be able to beat the L&M price, which they hate. This lets L&M get away from selling all parts and make better margins on the parts and repairs. They also control what the small repair shops can charge for parts, since they just took control of the source.


You can't blame WD, we're small potatoes. L&M dominates the retail space, so it makes sense for WD to do this.


As awesome as WD is and the people who ran it are, YV and L&M are equally as terrible.

[Lollar Jason]

why dont you just buy from woosung chorus or G+B pickups ?- both are korean. You will need to buy a box when you buy parts- I dont think they will sell onezee twozees

[David King]

There's a Canadian Ebay seller called Bezdez who imports a lot of Korean parts directly. It might be worth asking her if she could expand the offerings for you.

[Bloomfield]

I've never actually dealt with WD myself, but I've looked at their website several times and thought that they seemed like a great source for a lot of items, pickguards and pickguard material especially. This deal sounds like bad news although we'll have to wait and see what happens. I must say though, that the odd time I look at the Allparts stuff, or the tubes, at my local Long & McQuade my first reaction is that the prices are awful compared to what you see on U.S. websites, but actually when you factor in shipping and all that, sometimes they are actually a good deal. Mind you, this might be old stock priced when the dollar was closer to par.

My last order from AES really got me thinking about this sort of thing. On a reasonable sized order, $190 USD in merchandise, the total in Canadian dollars after shipping, taxes, etc. was about $380. So you really have to double the price you see on the screen to get a sense of what it will really cost. The 'free ground shipping in lower 48 states' banner just kicks some more dirt in it.

I started looking around for speakers the other day and found a newish place that looks worth a try: nextgenguitars.ca. They carry a large range of Eminence and Celestion at what look like very good prices. Hammond transformers too, and a small selection of guitar hardware that would end up a bit cheaper than Stewmac by the time it was delivered. Also they have free shipping on orders over $150. I'm planning on putting in an order soon and I'll see how it goes. I realise that this thread originated in relation to pickup making; they don't have anything in that category, but looking at their website they seem like they might be interested in expanding into new areas if there was a demand.

Thumbs up to Bezdez too; if I need tuners for a cheaper guitar, or generic stuff like jackplates or pickguard material they are good to deal with.

Hope you're all enjoying the holidays,

Andy

[12xu]

I've never actually dealt with WD myself, but I've looked at their website several times and thought that they seemed like a great source for a lot of items, pickguards and pickguard material especially. This deal sounds like bad news although we'll have to wait and see what happens. I must say though, that the odd time I look at the Allparts stuff, or the tubes, at my local Long & McQuade my first reaction is that the prices are awful compared to what you see on U.S. websites, but actually when you factor in shipping and all that, sometimes they are actually a good deal. Mind you, this might be old stock priced when the dollar was closer to par.

My last order from AES really got me thinking about this sort of thing. On a reasonable sized order, $190 USD in merchandise, the total in Canadian dollars after shipping, taxes, etc. was about $380. So you really have to double the price you see on the screen to get a sense of what it will really cost. The 'free ground shipping in lower 48 states' banner just kicks some more dirt in it.

I started looking around for speakers the other day and found a newish place that looks worth a try: nextgenguitars.ca. They carry a large range of Eminence and Celestion at what look like very good prices. Hammond transformers too, and a small selection of guitar hardware that would end up a bit cheaper than Stewmac by the time it was delivered. Also they have free shipping on orders over $150. I'm planning on putting in an order soon and I'll see how it goes. I realise that this thread originated in relation to pickup making; they don't have anything in that category, but looking at their website they seem like they might be interested in expanding into new areas if there was a demand.

Thumbs up to Bezdez too; if I need tuners for a cheaper guitar, or generic stuff like jackplates or pickguard material they are good to deal with.

Hope you're all enjoying the holidays,

Andy

I order from nextgen all the time. 100% great vendor.

[Broken String Music]

So I used to be a WD dealer, and Allparts dealer and had accounts with Stewmac and CE Distibution in Arizona...I am still building guitars, cabs etc but on a much smaller scale than before. I have found the cost of bringing in parts from the US has become ridiculous, and I suppose this is in no small part due to the clamp-down at the border by the US and probably Canada. WD used to be distributed by Charlie Argall and he used to sell POP displays to a lot of stores. I tend to doubt that L&M is going to do the same...they will order once a month maybe and then ship as the product arrives at their warehouse...from a business standpoint, it makes sense. For us little guys not so much. I have not yet dealt with Next Gen but they seem to be getting good reviews. A new company called Solo Music Gear has opened in Mississauga Ontario and have an excellent stock of guitar parts, pickups etc. When I say stock...they actually do stock the product. They have not yet seriously entered the amplifier parts market, but they will...soon. I find their prices are not bad...not the cheapest, but when you consider Cdn dollars and Cdn shipping....well... They are worth a look. Also Bezdez....I have dealt with Peter for years and he is great...excellent communication and shipping and his prices are really reasonable. It's not easy for us up here in Canada, but hopefully it may get better!

[Mark Hammer]

I've never actually dealt with WD myself, but I've looked at their website several times and thought that they seemed like a great source for a lot of items, pickguards and pickguard material especially. This deal sounds like bad news although we'll have to wait and see what happens. I must say though, that the odd time I look at the Allparts stuff, or the tubes, at my local Long & McQuade my first reaction is that the prices are awful compared to what you see on U.S. websites, but actually when you factor in shipping and all that, sometimes they are actually a good deal. Mind you, this might be old stock priced when the dollar was closer to par.

My last order from AES really got me thinking about this sort of thing. On a reasonable sized order, $190 USD in merchandise, the total in Canadian dollars after shipping, taxes, etc. was about $380. So you really have to double the price you see on the screen to get a sense of what it will really cost. The 'free ground shipping in lower 48 states' banner just kicks some more dirt in it.

I started looking around for speakers the other day and found a newish place that looks worth a try: nextgenguitars.ca. They carry a large range of Eminence and Celestion at what look like very good prices. Hammond transformers too, and a small selection of guitar hardware that would end up a bit cheaper than Stewmac by the time it was delivered. Also they have free shipping on orders over $150. I'm planning on putting in an order soon and I'll see how it goes. I realise that this thread originated in relation to pickup making; they don't have anything in that category, but looking at their website they seem like they might be interested in expanding into new areas if there was a demand.

Thumbs up to Bezdez too; if I need tuners for a cheaper guitar, or generic stuff like jackplates or pickguard material they are good to deal with.

Hope you're all enjoying the holidays,

Andy

Jon Beals at nextgen is a local guy for me, and a buddy. I buy stuff from him regularly, and because I'm local, I just pick it up and save myself any shipping costs. He's growing the business bit by bit (it's just a 2-man operation for now), so I would imagine that anything new he could carry for Canadian clients, that wouldn't necessitate a big outlay for inventory, would appeal to him.

[Bloomfield]

I've ordered from Nextgen a couple of times now and they have been great to deal with. They have been adding lots of new items lately too, including capacitors for tube amps at a good price.

[kayakerca]

Jon Beals at nextgen is a local guy for me, and a buddy. I buy stuff from him regularly, and because I'm local, I just pick it up and save myself any shipping costs. He's growing the business bit by bit (it's just a 2-man operation for now), so I would imagine that anything new he could carry for Canadian clients, that wouldn't necessitate a big outlay for inventory, would appeal to him.

It's good to see a part supplier actually here in town, but at this point, NexGen appears to be focusing more on guitar/amp parts market than the pickup winder space. Currently they are not carrying things like coil wire or 28 gauge hookup wire or covers or magnets or bobbins or flatwork, etc., etc. And I get it. There are not a lot of winders here in Ottawa (big smiley face here), but they appear (according to their "About Us") to be wanting to setup to fill in the hole and become be a major parts supplier in Canada. There are a quite a few winders here nationwide, so hopefully the business will be able to expand a bit in that direction as well.