
I once had a $52 COD payment requested from UPS for tax and brokerage on a $12 item.
Canadian customs will always waive tax and duties for declared values under $20CAD but only USPS gets this.
I use FedEx or USPS depending on insurance etc. when there will be a tax or duty hit. If you use FedEx, consider getting your own account as that will eliminate the COD fee (I think FedEx call it ROD).
I recently had a shipment from
APMEX (reasonably high value) of investment grade silver (in Canada that is 999 or better) so no taxes or duties were applicable and UPS charged nothing... That was a first. My prior shipment I included some airtites which were taxable (though should have been waived at the sub $20 level) but was combined with the higher value of Silver ... which was not taxed but I ended up with $50 in brokerage + $1.50 in tax for the airtites.
Stay away from UPS.