How is Canon going to compete with the grey market in Australia?

[wickidwombat]

*yes the internet prices like B&H or DWI may be slightly cheaper but you will get hit with import Taxes and GST due to it being over $1000 don't forget.

this is a very valid point as you not only get hit for the 10% GSt but also 5% duty

so for example a 5Dmk2 that costs you $2050 from ebay
you will get $205 in GST and a further $102.50 in duty piled on top
bringing the total up to $2357.50

if it gets picked up at customs of course it might not too so its a gamble but at $2357.50 I would rather get it local.

[Pyrenees]

*yes the internet prices like B&H or DWI may be slightly cheaper but you will get hit with import Taxes and GST due to it being over $1000 don't forget.

this is a very valid point as you not only get hit for the 10% GSt but also 5% duty

Yeah, totally forgot about the 5% customs fee on top of 10% GST.  It makes it difficult to justify getting most gear worth > $1000 from overseas 

[rmhowie]

DigitalRev will handle all import hassle for you and their prices are still pretty good! They have the 5D Mark III up for AU$ 3,590.00(http://www.digitalrev.com/product/canon-eos-5d-mark-iii/MTAwMDQwNQ_A_A), and they have free shipping.

They say offer a local warranty by paying for any repairs that would be covered by warranty or you can send it back to them: http://www.digitalrev.com/help/worldwide-local-warranty/NDMzNTc5MQ_A_A.

I've bought from them before and I do recommend them to friends. Their shipping is also very fast. I recently ordered my 100mm f/2.8L IS Macro on Friday the 24th of Feb and I recieved it on Monday the 27th.

[te4o]

Good points for DigitalRev and leederville. Bravo I didn't know about leederville but I hope they ship across the continent... How can they actually get the price so low and the others don't? This is making them good business and very soon mine too! I like the website of leederville.
Any means to get the import product prices to match the strong Aussie are good means. We don't have the dollar at 40 UScents any more! And AFAIK Australia does not produce DSLR... Why do we have to pay GST at all - in New Zealand car imports are GST free because the country doesn't have any car industry.

[wickidwombat]

Good points for DigitalRev and leederville. Bravo I didn't know about leederville but I hope they ship across the continent... How can they actually get the price so low and the others don't? This is making them good business and very soon mine too! I like the website of leederville.
Any means to get the import product prices to match the strong Aussie are good means. We don't have the dollar at 40 UScents any more! And AFAIK Australia does not produce DSLR... Why do we have to pay GST at all - in New Zealand car imports are GST free because the country doesn't have any car industry.

leederville do ship to major capitals. 1 thing with digital rev. I do rate them highly and service is great, super fast shipping and they have a good warranty. the issue is the cost to ship something back to hong kong it really isnt cheap. it might cost you $100 to send it back for warranty where as to send something like this within aus is only maybe $15 plus if you purchase from leederville its an aus warranty which any canon service dealer will honour within australia.

Gotta give a company like leederville credit for standing up for us consumers to canon who after all are their bread and butter. I would say this price means they are selling at little or no profit on the new stuff just to send a message.

[rmhowie]

Their warranty page states that they will send a courier to pick it up if you want to return it to them, but yes, they don't explicitly state who would pay for it.

I would pay an extra $200-300 to get it here in AUS, but after that I would go straight to DigitalRev, B&H or Adorama.

[scottsdaleriots]

I don't think Canon can compete. EVen though the aussie dollar is higher than the US, we still have to paid a significant price for the product (same with apple products). It's stupid, all they want is money, money and more money.

I would buy everything grey market/import but the only two things that I worry about is 1) warranty and 2) the shipping and GST prices on stuff over $1000. someone kick julia gillard outta office now! shouldn't have voted for her, she's such a s$&t PM no joke

[rambarra]

thats just ridiculous... you are asking canon to compete against whom.. themselves?
The so-called "HK low prices" are supported by canon only, and it's only canon to be held responsible for any pricing discrepancy in different world markets. It's canon only that when needs to get rid of some overstock sells merchandise below official price listing to HK brokers. Where do you think these guys get their merchandise from?
We are grey market importers in our country. I do buy regularly from HK and my broker there always alerts me when there is some kind of "special offer" with some kind of "minimum order quantity" attached to it. Where do these offers come from?

[gmrza]

Good points for DigitalRev and leederville. Bravo I didn't know about leederville but I hope they ship across the continent... How can they actually get the price so low and the others don't? This is making them good business and very soon mine too! I like the website of leederville.
Any means to get the import product prices to match the strong Aussie are good means. We don't have the dollar at 40 UScents any more! And AFAIK Australia does not produce DSLR... Why do we have to pay GST at all - in New Zealand car imports are GST free because the country doesn't have any car industry.

leederville do ship to major capitals. 1 thing with digital rev. I do rate them highly and service is great, super fast shipping and they have a good warranty. the issue is the cost to ship something back to hong kong it really isnt cheap. it might cost you $100 to send it back for warranty where as to send something like this within aus is only maybe $15 plus if you purchase from leederville its an aus warranty which any canon service dealer will honour within australia.

Gotta give a company like leederville credit for standing up for us consumers to canon who after all are their bread and butter. I would say this price means they are selling at little or no profit on the new stuff just to send a message.

While my wife and I are not quite ready to pull the trigger on the 5DIII, I will certainly be finding out more about Leederville's warranty - if it is backed by any Canon service dealer, that takes most of the risk out of buying a parallel import.  (I don't like the term "grey market".)

One of the considerations is whether or not having a CPS membership makes any sense - but that means that you need to buy each and every item you want covered by CPS from a Canon professional dealer in Australia.  Assuming you buy at least one item of equipment each year, there just seems to be no way that the CPS benefits cover the premium you pay.  Has anyone else looked at the numbers in that respect?

If I look at the gear we still want to get this year (5DIII, 24-70 f/2.8 II, BG-E11, a couple more LP-E6 batteries, maybe a 600-EX RT) and you look at the savings on parallel imports, it just doesn't make sense to buy Canon-imported gear.

I'll be interested to hear of experiences as well once a couple of people have bought from Leederville.

[wickidwombat]

Good points for DigitalRev and leederville. Bravo I didn't know about leederville but I hope they ship across the continent... How can they actually get the price so low and the others don't? This is making them good business and very soon mine too! I like the website of leederville.
Any means to get the import product prices to match the strong Aussie are good means. We don't have the dollar at 40 UScents any more! And AFAIK Australia does not produce DSLR... Why do we have to pay GST at all - in New Zealand car imports are GST free because the country doesn't have any car industry.

leederville do ship to major capitals. 1 thing with digital rev. I do rate them highly and service is great, super fast shipping and they have a good warranty. the issue is the cost to ship something back to hong kong it really isnt cheap. it might cost you $100 to send it back for warranty where as to send something like this within aus is only maybe $15 plus if you purchase from leederville its an aus warranty which any canon service dealer will honour within australia.

Gotta give a company like leederville credit for standing up for us consumers to canon who after all are their bread and butter. I would say this price means they are selling at little or no profit on the new stuff just to send a message.

While my wife and I are not quite ready to pull the trigger on the 5DIII, I will certainly be finding out more about Leederville's warranty - if it is backed by any Canon service dealer, that takes most of the risk out of buying a parallel import.  (I don't like the term "grey market".)

One of the considerations is whether or not having a CPS membership makes any sense - but that means that you need to buy each and every item you want covered by CPS from a Canon professional dealer in Australia.  Assuming you buy at least one item of equipment each year, there just seems to be no way that the CPS benefits cover the premium you pay.  Has anyone else looked at the numbers in that respect?

If I look at the gear we still want to get this year (5DIII, 24-70 f/2.8 II, BG-E11, a couple more LP-E6 batteries, maybe a 600-EX RT) and you look at the savings on parallel imports, it just doesn't make sense to buy Canon-imported gear.

I'll be interested to hear of experiences as well once a couple of people have bought from Leederville.

This is my first time dealling with leederville camera however since they are local in perth it's fine as I can go in
they have been in business a long time 27 years i think so not fly by nighters

as for CPS I have been looking into it and half my gear has been purchased overseas and half here so i qualify on local purchases but I would like to have ALL my gear covered its something I need to look into more

[april]

I agree.  In fact I just placed my order with http://www.leedervillecameras.com.au/ (which was recommended by simonxu11 - thanks) for the 5DIII at $AU3599 (inc GST) which I think is reasonable compared to RRP's we're seeing.  I ordered via telephone, spoke to a friendly staff member and left a $400 deposit.  They expect to have stock by the end of the month.  They also offer the 24-70II kit for an extra $2200 (if I remember correctly) and I was very tempted but I think I'll wait.  They also offered an extended Canon warranty (extra 2 years) for $199. 

Edit: I've bought grey before but if I can help it I'd rather buy local.  It's no good for anyone for local businesses to go down.
[/quote]

Canon warranty? is it canon australia? My problem is I am buying a 5DIII which is just new and have never been used by anyone among us on a daily basis so I need to be sure where to buy it from due to warranty issue furthermore, once I get my new 5dIII, I may need to send my other camera and my lenses to the service center for a bit of cleaning and calibration

[wickidwombat]

I try to buy local for the following reasons
- It supports local businesses who are often small businesses fighting to survive and our retarded governement seem to actively try and destroy small businesses when they are in reality the life blood of our country (dont really want to digress into politics though )
- Many of these local camera stores provide sponsorship of prize money vouchers or the like to many local art awards, yes it is promotion of their business but it also helps to give some momentum to developing artists who are most likely also not in the greatest financial position.
- For a body I see there being more potential things to go wrong so prefer having the store close by just in case something goes wrong.
- I wont choose to buy online over local for a small price difference but when the difference is as much as 50%
you have to look at the.

I do like digital rev in particular as an ebay vendor and canon lenses flashes etc that are under $1000 I usually buy from them.
another issue that makes grey market items attractive is the fact that canon only give you 1 year warranty anyway. typically stuff is either DoA and can be sent back straight away and continues to work well past warranty expirey, I find very rarely does something fail after say 9 months if its worked fine from day 1.

[blackwind]

This is the best price i have seen so far... My local teds, which i buy most of my DSLR gears from, i get pretty good price from them. Couldnt even give any good price yet. because they dont have the stock to priced.

I will keep this watch, i am interested in buying local (warranty and no funny business)

I will watch this leedervillecamers.com.au closely.

April do you remember the guy name the one on the phone? Just a quote might be helpful if we know his name.,

Cheers

I agree.  In fact I just placed my order with http://www.leedervillecameras.com.au/ (which was recommended by simonxu11 - thanks) for the 5DIII at $AU3599 (inc GST) which I think is reasonable compared to RRP's we're seeing.  I ordered via telephone, spoke to a friendly staff member and left a $400 deposit.  They expect to have stock by the end of the month.  They also offer the 24-70II kit for an extra $2200 (if I remember correctly) and I was very tempted but I think I'll wait.  They also offered an extended Canon warranty (extra 2 years) for $199. 

Edit: I've bought grey before but if I can help it I'd rather buy local.  It's no good for anyone for local businesses to go down.

Canon warranty? is it canon australia? My problem is I am buying a 5DIII which is just new and have never been used by anyone among us on a daily basis so I need to be sure where to buy it from due to warranty issue furthermore, once I get my new 5dIII, I may need to send my other camera and my lenses to the service center for a bit of cleaning and calibration

[melbournite]

Canon warranty?

Yes, that was the first question I asked him but you can double check (my exact question was 'is the camera Australian stock' - which the answer was yes).  Furthermore because Leederville are part of 'Camera House' chain, (should you have any warranty issues) you can return the camera to any Camera House close to you.

In regard to DigitalRev, I am pretty sure that anything over $1000, GST and Duty still apply.  The question is whether the item gets checked at customs?

[wickidwombat]

In regard to DigitalRev, I am pretty sure that anything over $1000, GST and Duty still apply.  The question is whether the item gets checked at customs?

Its a lottery, might get checked and it might not