I have been ordering much of my Maerklin from BC. This is because I am not buying as much as I used to, combined with the fact that there is less product of interest from any one particular brand and not every dealer carries all of them. I used to be able to put together within a reasonable space of time an order of 3-5 items and combining shipping was a good way of reducing the cost per item. Shipments from Germany often involve a discount of the German MWSt (VAT), but parcels to Canada are often assessed Federal and Provincial taxes (GST, PST or HST) plus Canada Post's handling fee. There is no "de minimis" exception as in the USA.
For several years now, I have found it to be less expensive to order single items or maybe even two items from my Canadian source than to order from Europe. When you look at shipping costs between 40 to 60 EUR, plus the handling fee, it becomes cheaper to buy the item here, even if it may only be a few dollars less. The advantage is that buying from out of Province (some Provinces) means that only the GST and shipping has to be paid.
I don't know what Canadian dealers will do if they are obliged to continue to order from US distributors, as those goods will definitely be affected by US tariffs on original import to America and I don't see a mechanism to get those tariffs refunded on export.
I think that we will see more Canadian dealers ordering direct from Germany, although the minimum order quantities from some companies might complicate that if the brand is not a major seller for that dealer.

I have many models from companies like ACME, LSM, etc and those can often be limited or items manufactured for one distributor or dealer only. For those models, I deal with those specific dealers or dealers in those countries that I have accounts with.

For other items, if I can't find them here, there are a number of dealers in Europe that I do business with.

Here is a list of my preferred dealers (2025):
Huenerbein (Aachen) (Limited/LSM, ACME, all)
Memoba (Vienna) (Limited/LSM, ACME, all)
Eyro (Interlaken) (Swiss models/LSM, ACME, etc)
Reisezugwagen.eu (Uli Reyer) (Ludwigsburg) (LSM, ACME, etc)
Joes Modellbahnlaedle (Frickenhausen)
BW Bahn (Bernhard Wild) (Munich)
Gleis 11 (Munich)

You should check your Province's rules on out of Province shipments to find out whether orders from other Province's are exempt from some taxes. You may be able to save by ordering from outside your own area.
Rules may be different in Provinces with HST.

Regards

Mike C

Hi

I also used to be a customer of Lok shop, until Roland and Elizabeth retired. I switched to using lipppe.
Lippe has a flat rate of 27 euros for shipping to Canada via FedEx global Express. Very impressive service, packages often arrive in less than 7 days from ordering.
You will get a phone call from FedEx advising additional charges for taxes that need to be paid prior to delivery.
I had an issue with lippe and their use of paper packaging tape. It would often fail in transit. After threatening to stop dealing with them, the packages have arrived with plastic packaging tape.
I generally only order from Germany products that are not available in Canada, for example ulenbrock.
However their speed of delivery for new releases is impressive. If purchased locally, I often am waiting several months after the product is available in Europe.
For marklin product, I am told this is because the product is shipped by container to marklin usa, and then finally forwarded to the local dealer.
It would be nice if the local dealers could go back to having shipments direct from Europe.

Yes, the delivery speed issue is now compounded by the impending tariff. Since more and more Marklin is made in China this is going to be a serious problem for North American dealers.
However, shipping direct to Canadian dealers, for example is also fraught with problems. Transportation cost is high with larger shipments, so will need to be consolidated, probably involving container shipping to keep cost downwhich means more delays again.

This discussion about the varying rates charged by dealers for shipping brings us to another issue.
Many postal services charge different rates to average clients versus corporate clients or bulk shippers.
I suspect that there are some dealers who do not get any discounts and pay full fare.
Others may get the basic corporate discounts and still charge the amount that a regular Joe would see if he looked up the cost on the website.
Yet others may get even greater bulk discounts and charge the customer whatever they want to.
I don't know whether you have noticed, but many parcels no longer show the actual postage costs on them

Regards

Mike C

No Mike, I think shipping costs reflect the increase in fuel, etc. Maybe even man hours because of the pay increases for port staffing, drivers, insurance, and taxes too.I was recently quoted by FedEx $180 for round trip ground to south Florida on a 26# box about the size of a large dresser drawer. From southeast Michigan.

It was always fun to get a package with a lot of stamps, because I used to collect them, and trade them in school with friends.
Even the teacher was part of the club.
Alass, another hobby that has fallen away due to increased productivity and automation.
We were happy with little things, a lot of fun has disappeared over the years.
Tim