Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/03/16

[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]

Subject: Re: [Leica] Gray Market vs US Import?? Leicas and Jeans.
From: "Henning J. Wulff" <henningw@archiphoto.com>
Date: Mon, 16 Mar 1998 22:02:59 -0800

Regarding this grey market/country-by-country pricing, I had an interesting
experience about 15 years ago.

I was looking for a good wideangle lens for 8x10, and wanted to get the
Nikkor SW 150/8. I phoned the Canadian distributor as there wasn't any such
lens in the country at the time (I'm in Canada), and he gave me to
understand that if I ordered the lens, it would arrive in approx. 3 months
and cost about $3300 Cdn, based on a 15 percent dealer markup.

I then phoned B&H in New York, and they had a lens in stock. I ordered it,
and had it in my hands 2 days later for a landed, complete,
all-duty-and-taxes paid price of $1380 Cdn. This was not old stock; the
lens is still available new for less than the Canadian price of 15 years
ago. I found other uses for the $1920 saved.

I've had similar experiences with other items; none quite as extreme, but
still very obvious. I certainly got the feeling that the Canadian
distributor felt that he might have landed a live one.

10, 15 or 20 percent difference between markets after calculating out
differences in market size, taxes, duties, economic swings etc. might be
forgiven, but 239 percent is too much.

On a similar topic, I bought a new BMW in 1992 with European delivery. My
final cost, when it finally was shipped back and registered in Canada was
about 25 percent LESS than the same car would have cost me if I had bought
the same model in Germany, and our taxes are about the same, plus we have
to pay duty here, and we have a much longer warranty than the Germans get.
Figure that out!


   *            Henning J. Wulff
  /|\      Wulff Photography & Design
 /###\   mailto:henningw@archiphoto.com
 |[ ]|     http://www.archiphoto.com