fingertapper, it will be substantially more than $55 for you. Factor in the terrible exchange rate, shipping, duty and taxes, and possibly a small brokerage fee. It's still worth it if you go through a lot of ribbon, but otherwise buying generic ribbon locally is the best route to go. Keep in mind how long ribbon lasts; I've been testing this on one machine and so far I'm over 400 pages (some 120,000+ words - double spaced lines) and the ribbon is still providing a nice dark impression.

As for the colour choices, I've never bought black and red ribbon, and I always replace it with just black ribbon because once the top half is used up I can just flip the spools upside down (providing the machine uses generic spools) and start all over again.

Spazmelda wrote:

probably not economical.

When the U.S. and Canadian dollar were on par, it was a smart way to go - providing of course you go through a LOT of ribbon (I've gone through about 800 yards in the past three years). At the moment the exchange is terrible and I don't order anything from the States any longer because of the large premium you pay. Shipping, and all the customs stuff also pile onto the cost. Bulk makes sense if you have a lot of machines, and you use them all the time, but for a modest collection that gets periodic use, you're right that it isn't very economical.

The delivery method sometimes makes a big difference in terms of customs. For example, if you use any of the major couriers such as UPS or FedEx, you WILL get nailed for a brokerage fee (usually $10) and you will end up paying the customs fees, which is local sales taxes and import duties. On the other hand, items sent through the originating country's postal service have a 50/50 chance of showing up at your door without any extra fees at all. Companies such as Baco (I have used them in the past, but it became too expensive for me) have to do everything above board, and I think that the last time I ordered from them the cost of the ribbon was doubled by the time it reached my door after all the other charges were added in. I should dig out the receipts to make sure.

An individual person could technically send something labelled as a "gift" and it should avoid any extra charges, but it's something a reputable company would never do as it could cause them a lot of trouble since it's a form of fraud. Pretty much everything I receive from China is labelled "gift", which says a lot about about the inequity of competing with the Chinese.

I'm sure you have a Staples in your area. Some stores actually stock the ribbon ($10), and if not you can order it through them and still get it for the same price. When I had a reasonably sized collection it was the most cost effective solution available to me at the time.