Pentax HD 55-300 for £115 reduced to clear instore at John Lewis, Oxford Street, London

I saw several of these late this afternoon in a display cabinet in the camera section on the 5th floor, with usual Ricoh boxes. Clearly marked as £115 and guaranteed for 2 years. I already have this lens, else I would have bought one on the spot.

Marked down to £230 in Ashford, Kent's branch. Just checked now. They advised that it was up to the store to set their own discount and wouldn't match.

There are still two of these left at £115 in John Lewis's Oxford Street

This is a brilliant lens and £115 is a brilliant price.

Absolutely - there were 3 when I went into the store...

You should have bought both and then sold them on here at a profit ... I can think of at least one person on here who would have done just that

They don't appear to have them now - I just looked !

Were you instore as I am not sure if these mega-reduced clearance items appear on the website

The website is run independent of the stores and has it's own stock. You can actually order stuff from a store and it is delivered by the store not the website.

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I understand that some stores like the Oxford Street on are flagship stores where a lot of the real clearance stuff will go. Interestingly, they have other new ones in the main sale cabinets for sale in excess of £300!

Whilst JL does have flagship stores, they don't concentrate clearance items into them at Clearance time.

Special purchases are distributed to all stores, and each store will mark down as appropriate items that for them are normal stock. A flagship store is more likely to have a wider range of brands, so they're the places to look at Clearance time for brands like Pentax which us not stocked in all JL stores.

JL online is effectively a separate business and does its own thing.

My wife used to work for JL.

I had a quick ring around and it appears that there are still a few available under clearance, but they're £230.

Either Oxford St was making a very good clearance offer or they've released they're worth a few more quid!

Shame, as I was after a decent longer lens for a safari!

And that is now dearer than SRS this weekend !