Incedible price difference USA versus Europe for 350D

I don’t think that those who understand what’s going on in the
world currency markets are happy with what the Bush administration
has done to the dollar (unless you bought Euros cheap before Bush
ruined things). It's a disgrace and moronic, but it’s something we
Americans brought on ourselves and will have to endure for another
4 years.

As an American, it’s depressing to think that people voted to keep
these policies in place (the last election) but most people don’t
even realize what they’ve done to themselves. Enjoy the weak dollar
if, and while, you can.

Jim
===================================

Jim:

Can you explain to us what the Bush administration has done that has caused world currency markets to value the Euro higher than the dollar? Help me understand what's so disgraceful and moronic about the US buying the world's output.
--
Nashua, NH, USA
http://www.pbase.com/baklink

 
You mean that i can make an account on my name and pay with my belgian visa card if the shipping address is in america ?This would be a lot easyer for everybody, no need to transfert money to my friend, i pay everything and he just bring me back my package.
Or the billing address must be in america ?

My plan is to buy 350 + CF + Lens, so it's a lot of money, and a lot to win with the euro/dollar exchange rate :)
You should really try to get some kind of US address to set this
up, as B&H allows for sending of an order to a shipping address
different from the billing address as long as the former is an US
address.

I have recently done this, when buying my 17-40L, and it was so
sweet, it almost hurt...520 EUR (as opposed to 720 from
http://www.technikdirekt.de and 850 list price in Portugal).

PK

--
“Loose praise may feed my ego but constructive criticism advances
my skills”
*************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/photokhan
(Pbase Supporter)
-------------------------------------------------
 
Thank you for the tips.
It will help me a lot.
PhotoKhan said:
1. Set up an account with B&H. Set it up with your regular, Belgian
address (the same as the billing address for the CC you intend to
use).

2. Place the order.

As per B&H regulations, for your first order, you'll need to send
them a faxed or photocopied image of your CC (both front and back).
I argued with them it was not safe to send images of the CC via
e-mail and we came up with an accepted modification. I sent two
mails with appended photos. Each of them with 10 out of the 16
numbers masked out but one with a series of 4 showing different
from the other. Something like this: 1234 56** and
5678 90* . This way 6 of the numbers were never shown, each
image only carried 6 numbers and the credit card could be fairly
evaluated as genuine by them.


3. Fill the billing address with the same address the CC is usually
billed to. (The same as in step 1)

4. Fill the shipping address with a different, US address (it MUST
BE a US address). This could be your friend’s address.

5. Have your friend bring it over and enjoy the HUGE savings.

(NOTE: Be prepared for your friend to be stopped over at customs
and asked to pay the duties. Slim chance but always worth
considering...You’ll still be at gain, but not as a massive one as
when duties and VAT are avoided).

PK

--
“Loose praise may feed my ego but constructive criticism advances
my skills”
*************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/photokhan
(Pbase Supporter)
-------------------------------------------------
 
1. Set up an account with B&H. Set it up with your regular, Belgian address (the same as the billing address for the CC you intend to use).

2. Place the order.

As per B&H regulations, for your first order, you'll need to send them a faxed or photocopied image of your CC (both front and back). I argued with them it was not safe to send images of the CC via e-mail and we came up with an accepted modification. I sent two mails with appended photos. Each of them with 10 out of the 16 numbers masked out but one with a series of 4 showing different from the other. Something like this: 1234 56** and 5678 90* . This way 6 of the numbers were never shown, each image only carried 6 numbers and the credit card could be fairly evaluated as genuine by them.

3. Fill the billing address with the same address the CC is usually billed to. (The same as in step 1)

4. Fill the shipping address with a different, US address (it MUST BE a US address). This could be your friend’s address.

5. Have your friend bring it over and enjoy the HUGE savings.

(NOTE: Be prepared for your friend to be stopped over at customs and asked to pay the duties. Slim chance but always worth considering...You’ll still be at gain, but not as a massive one as when duties and VAT are avoided).

PK

--
“Loose praise may feed my ego but constructive criticism advances my skills”
*************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/photokhan
(Pbase Supporter)
 
Of course your friend is commiting a criminal offense, if caught would have to pay the duty, may have to pay a fine, could lose the camera as well and then, with a criminal record, would be unable to visit the USA or many other countries for many years to come.

Obviously it is unlikely that they will be caught and unlikely that they would suffer more than having to pay the duty if they are caught, but it's a lot to ask a friend.

--
George
 
I have always been furious about the whole crazy situation.

There is NO valid reason for the HUGE price differences between US and European prices AND between prices within Europe.
European VAT rates are ridiculously high.
Distributer's prices are insane.
You get my point.
It has nothing whatsoever to do with Europeans being less price conscious.
We simply have little or no choice.

Warranty: in Germany warranty on camera's = 2 years. In some other European countries where prices are considerably higher (but VAT approximately the same as Germany), warranty is 1 year.

What is happening is simple: people buy less ans less expensive goods, which is all but good for the economy.

To top it all, be only get certain goods and much later compared to the US and the east.

Many shopowners are rude here, compared to the US (where I have been MANY times before).
I see no benefits for customers here in Europe, whatsoever.
 
If it's not that, it's that traditionally, prices for "electronics" have been higher in Europe than in the US. Heck, even when I've traveled to Asia, I can buy stuff in the US cheaper than there.
 
I think part of the reason for the difference is answered by the number of different nations represented in this one thread. GB, Belgium, Netherlands, Germany, Italy, etc. (no offense to those included as etc.). The U.S. is probably a much larger single market, with one distributor-Canon USA-and a large number of sales of a product that is identical in every respect, including a single set of customs rules and regs.

While I have no numbers to support my theory, the volume of 300Ds sold in the U.S. was probably comparable to the volume sold in Europe, but Europe is not a single country with the camera box, manuals, software, battery charger, and so forth all the same. Not to mention, there is only one set of customs rules and regulations here vs many over the many nations of Europe. The economies of scale from a product manufactured, labeled, packaged, shipped, imported, and distributed in the numbers sold here, can easily account for 10-15% difference in final cost at the retail level.

Add the effect of a live-for-today population which spends every penny it earns and has the world's lowest savings rate, and you have a consumer product company's dream market.

Oh...and to answer the question someone asked of another post about President Bush damaging the economy: He was talking about the historically large budget deficit. Deficit spending by government puts more dollars in circulation. Since government creates nothing, those additional dollars can only dilute the value of existing dollars, which ultimately produces inflation and recession together--like another president from Texas did with the Vietnam war, the war on poverty, the race to land a man on the moon, and the creation of Medicare, all at the same time. It produced the runaway inflation of the 70's along with the recession of the seventies--stagflation, or recessionary inflation--which continued until the oil crash of the 80's. Indeed, Mr. Bush is well on his way to being the worst president since Mr. Johnson--if not the worst since Grant, or possibly the worst of all time!

But this is not a political forum. Congrats to Canon on the 350D. Looks like a winner.

--
Bill

20D/300D Bigma 50-500, Canon 100-400LIS, Sigma 70-300APOII, Canon 28-135IS, Canon 17-85IS, Canon 18-55, Popeye 12-24, Tamron 1.4x, Canon 2xII
 
If it's not that, it's that traditionally, prices for "electronics"
have been higher in Europe than in the US. Heck, even when I've
traveled to Asia, I can buy stuff in the US cheaper than there.
It's been said I think a couple of times that I can recall in this thread that "Europeans have more money to spend..." which accounts for our higher cost of buying anything to do with cameras or elecronics generally ...plus other things.

I really don't think is in any way the case. Generally we always believe we earn vastly less than a lot of inflated figures we hear of in US ..although it's no doubt the case that the few may be showing up moreso against the many who are lower.

Frankly I think it is just simply a matter of two things... basically economics .. and that includes the undoubted present exchange situation which is having much outward influence on comparisons. But that apart , we ARE taxed up to the eye-balls AND we are sick and tired of having to find more and more money to pay for a Health Scheme that seems to support half the world that come here at our expense...AND the arithmetic is that WE have to pay for it all in taxes or similar extortions by local City taxes etc....and as there are less of us to do that, we have to pay such as this 17.5% Value Added Tax on almost everything, AND by necesssity we just have to pay more in the shops to buy most things. Simple enough I think ...and like US it seems, we never learn, so when elections come round we forgive and forget , it would seem...suckers as we are....
Doesn't help me to buy my new 350XT though , does it !!!!!! boo-hoo !

-
ericN

 
Doesn't help me to buy my new 350XT though , does it !
Sure doesn't help me either.
But it IS getting redicuous.

Dollar is still historically low and yet prices in a.o. Europe are surely not going down.

Much more cumbersome is the fact that OLD models like the 300D has now become will still sell for premium prices here.

H*LL, I see old/obsolete electronic equipment (incl. cameras) in shops that are still priced like 2-3 years ago ! (no joke).

"Many customers are ignorant anyway"... at least that's what I was told when I asked a shopkeeper (I know quite well) about this situation.

Anyway the 350XT/350D sure looks like a marvel of technology and I am curious to find out how outrageously expensive it is going to be over here.
;)
 
I was just checking out typical prices for the Pentax ist DS prices with their kit lens:

UK - £599.00
US - $849.00

Thats not far off a straight conversion if you remove our VAT & duty.

and much the same with Nikon

Nikon D70 with 18-70 lens £629.99
US - $1,299.87
 
My comment was tongue in cheek - I've been to Europe (and Asia) and find the prices outrageous.

Only things I can think of is that a manufacturer will aim to price their product at the point they think they can. These are technological products, and you make your money (high margin) in the first couple of months - after that the average selling price drops.

Now, as far as your tax situation (another tongue in cheek comment!), maybe you can have George W. after his four years are over here.
 
This is a form of price-fixing. Imagine a car manufacturer selling a car in the UK at 30-40% higher than anywhere else in the European Union. Imagine then someone other than a franchised dealer importing this manufacturer's cars from the European Union into the UK and selling them at European prices. Imagine now said car manufacturer not recognising warranty obligations/servicing contracts other than those put down in law. Imagine now a court case when a purchaser of said imported car goes to European court when ANTICIPATED and EXPECTED warranty is not honoured by manufacturer. Imagine manufacture honouring their obligations!

This actually happened in the car scenario. I can now buy a car from the UK in, say Germany, which is both right hand drive and with all warranties honoured if it proves fiscally advantageous for me to do so. So why not a camera? The answer is the USA is outside European law AND most if not all prices from franchised camera dealers are within 5 to 10% of each other. Clearly, competition is not at work here! Hence, the non-recognising of warranties by camera manufaturers of similar products bought in differing market areas.

In the car example there were very active and vociferous lobbies to make changes on behalf of the consumer. In the camera industry I see no evidence of this. Perhaps it is time for a few test cases!
Although for sure I'm going to buy a Canon EOS 350D, I am very
disappointed by the rather extreme price difference in the USA
versus Europe.

List price (dpreview information)
(body only)
• US: 899 dollar
• Europe: 899 euro
List price
(kit inc. lens)
• US: 999 dollar
• Europe: 1099 euro

Which means that 'the kit' is about 40% more expensive (1 euro =
1,30 $) in Europe than in the USA! Could anybody give any reason
why this in my opinion EXTREME price difference exists? If I buy
one in the USA, and pay VAT in Europe, it still would be a
difference of 20%.

Kind regards, John van Hulst
--

Drink is the curse of the land. It makes you fight with your neighbours. It makes you shoot at your landlord - and it makes you miss him!
 
...civilized countries, not declaring personal belonging goods does not lead to criminal prosecution.

Not complying with customs regulations is a contravention (not a crime) that leads to specific monetary penalties and, in some very specific cases, to civil charges.

It so happens, for instance, in your own country:

http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/channelsPortalWebApp.portal?_nfpb=true&_pageLabel=pageHome_ShowContent&id=HMCE_MIG_009994&propertyType=document

Like in most of Europe, Her Majesty reserves criminal charges for something really serious like organized smuggling rings importing illegal or dangerous goods.

PK

--
“Loose praise may feed my ego but constructive criticism advances my skills”
*************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/photokhan
(Pbase Supporter)
 
Hey, we get paid more than Americans... but...

...we pay more taxes.

Which state in the US has a 17.5% Sales Tax?

Do you have any idea how much Income Tax + Local Government Taxes we pay?

All the same, we can't complain, we elected the idiots who set these taxes.
and people in Europe always complain about the difference in price
but they never complain about the fact that in general they get
paid more than Americans ;-)

Also the dollar is super weak at the moment so the US prices seem
even cheaper in comparison to the pound or dollar than they usually
do.
--
==========================
Barry, http://www.jarnell.com/home.htm
 

Keyboard shortcuts

Back
Top