Nice list of vendors. I've used Princess Auto and Lee Valley a few times,
but hadn't known about the others.

Biggest hole in your methodology is the HF stores don't have nearly the
inventory as shown online or in the catalogs. Not even. On the other hand,
prices in the stores are often LOWER because they don't have to provide
"free shipping". Example is their Russian 110 pound cast steel anvil
which is advertised for a sale price of $99US but which you can often
get in their stores for $69US.

Another solution is to make friends in the US and trade favors!

Grant Erwin
Kirkland, Washington
2 hours south of BC

FixerDave wrote:


I gave up and stick with Canadian suppliers whenever
possible.
In order of my liking:
www.busybeetools.com
www.KMStools.com
www.houseoftools.com
www.princessauto.com
even www.leevalleytools.com once in a while (good books
anyway)

Maybe what we really need is a reverse E-Bay auction: "How
much will you charge me to drive to HF, buy the damn thing,
and ship it to me USPS?" Hmmm, you know, I bet that
would work... Some enterprising person living next door to
HF (and maybe close to a postal station might be able to
set up a tidy little low-volume business. Receive an email,
post an E-bay sale-type auction (to get all that Paypal
protection stuff), and wait for the person to do the bid
before going to the store and getting the product. For what
HF would charge for sending by UPS, I expect someone could
make a profit sending it by USPS, at least for the small
stuff...

David...