Buying from the USA now.

I know this has been mentioned on this site before on several occaisions but, what is the currently perceived wisdom of buying form the US...??

Amazon.com are now offereing the k10/kit zm for $725 with a rebate return of $100 dollars.

Amazon UK price is £480 which equates to more or less $1000...!?!! And, of course, there is no rebate from Pentax UK

Beach cameras are offereing at $625 with $100 rebate,...ie, about £300 with another £50 off...?????!!!!!!

I know that the rebate is not obtainable in the UK but what is the 'bottom line' of buying from the US? At least the rebate could go to a good US charity and the price is still not much more than half the UK price.

Has anyone purchased from the US please?

Best UK price is SRS/Park cameras but these are only a bit under Jessops (£480) at about £440,...still a MASSIVE $900+

You will have to factor in the import duty and VAT that will be levied by UK customs also.

I don't hesitate to buy from anywhere in the world, but only if the item in not available in the UK. I often import CDs for example, but only because I have obscure tastes!

As regards cameras, the payment of Import Duty, VAT and the handling charge for the carrier to collect them adds a fair amount. Coupled to this, UK prices are very good anyway and if anything goes wrong I would like to be able to return the item easily.

So I would say buying from the USA is not for routine purchasing, but if you need to then don'y forget to factor in the extra costs.

On top of shipping, you will probably have to pay duty and VAT, and you may well be charged a handling charge by the courier, so it is wise to add at least 25% to the shipped price (sale price plus shipping).

Then you have to add in the hassle if something goes wrong, together with the dodgy dealer factor. Many American mail-order dealers are very dodgy indeed, but it is generally agreed that B&H are excellent.

So, although I do buy from America, I will only do so if the saving is considerable, and I will only do so from one or two vendors.

Make sure an international warranty is offered.

Canadian dealers seem to be more honest than many American ones, especially the New York box-shifters.

G

Hi John

I often concur with your viewpoint regarding many subjects that are discussed within this forum, but I simply couldn't resist taking issue with your sweeping but erroneous statement that:

In comparison with U.S. retail prices compounded by rebates, you just HAVE to be kidding !! No offence intended, but I nearly peed myself laughing when reading this particular 'gem' and reckon a trip to your local optician might well be advisable to obtain an additional pair of rose-tinted glasses !!!!
You obviously seem to enjoy paying well over-the-odds for your photographic equipment in idyllic rip-off Euroland unlike the vast majority of the population !

Best regards
Richard

Richard, glad you were amused.

It all depends how you look at it. I think that compared to paying £209.95 for a Pentax MX with 50mm f1.7 lens in lets say 1985 (I haven't checked the exact date for that price) then paying £479 for a K10D with 18-55mm lens now is amazingly cheap. From a proper, local dealer with a good level of service and some after-sales interest.

So really what gets charged in some other market doesn't worry me too much. In any event, by the time we have imported from a cheaper market and added shipping, import duty, VAT and handling costs then the difference is not so great anyway.

When something goes wrong it is also much easier if the supplier was in the UK.

Of course, what is right for me might well not be right for others.

I purchased a couple of things from the USA when we were getting just over 90cents for the US$ but I purchased my camera from here in Australia for the warranty issues.

The difference in "retail" prices between here and the US is nothing less than amazing. For example a AF360FGZ flash was between $450 & $475 in Australia I got one from the US for $256 Australian dollars to my front door.

A mate of mine bought a Canon D40 (body and a couple of lenses) from Hongkong recently. I don't know where he will be placed with regards warranty.

I could'nt agree more mitcho. I buy all my gear from the US and HK if i can. There is a risk in regards to warranty but when you can save up too 40% i believe its worth the risk Just remember to keep your purchases under $1000 to avoid duty and GST
I got the same deal on my AF360 flash

The $100 rebate only applies if you are resident in the USA

John - £209 is probably not too far wrong. I bought mine for £150 in 1980 - amazing it only increased by £50 in 7 years in the ultra-inflation 1980s.

I've purchased from the US and Canada when in Australia and had real savings along the lines already mentioned. I made the mistake of purchasing a Pentax flash from the US while staying in the UK and was hit with a huge import duty which blew away any savings made. So my advice is if you are resident in Australia then it's well worth it but not so if you reside in the UK. In any case it's well worth seeing what is available locally. If it is a fair price and not too inflated I prefer to purchase from a local store.

I have looked far and wide for retailer in Aust that can compete with US prices but there are none. Thats why none of them will see my money. When you can save 40% too 50% its no contest

There are many visitors to the US at the moment. It is highly worthwhile visiting B&H in New York if you are there - very busy, but they usually have items in stock. Also worthwhle for smaller items like filters and batteries or just to chat to the used equipment guys.

I bought my camera from ebay and it happened to be from the US. I had looked to buy it from the US originally but managed to get it for under £400 so stuck with my ebay option.

I bought all my lenses from Adorama though as they were much cheaper than buying them here.

US PRICES (when i bought)
Tamron 18-250 was $450,
Pentax 50 1.4 was $180 and
Pentax D-LI50 battery was $45

$680 in total

UK PRICES (when i bought)
Tamron 18-250 was £350
Pentax 50 1.4 was £200 and
Pentax D-LI50 battery was £50

£600 total

Shipping added $50 so that takes the dollar price to $730 (~£370)! And granted I had to pay about £80 for duty/vat and it still worked out cheaper. Had I got away with the duty then I would have made even more savings.

I heard someone say B&H shipping manages to evade duty but I have not tried it myself. I chose Adorama because B&H did not have the Pentax 50 1.4 at the time.

All was delivered within a week.[/b]

If you're thinking of buying Sigma, the Canadian distributor warranty is 10 years long... But prices here are generally higher than the US mega-photo store prices; economies of scale and all that...
I'll use the Sigma 10-20 as an example since it has been talked about recently - I got one for C$659 (at the time C$1 was US$0.90) so it was about US$600. Prices have now dropped about $100 for this particular lens, and the US$ isn't as strong as it used to be...) B&H sells it for US$499, so the difference (about $150, as the C$ is actually worth a little more than the US$ right now) is the cheapest 10 year warranty you can get... Less than $15 per year...

ymmv...