Canon Direct refurbished thinning the herd?

[mistabernie]

Hey all,

Has anyone else noticed that recently the number of models available via Canon Direct (refurbished lenses and speedlites) has dropped from 5 pages of items to two pages of items? And that certain popular lenses (70-200 F/2.8L II for starters) are off the list?

Could this be indicative of what CR has been reporting, that Canon will be producing a record number of lenses this year, including but no limited to 24-70 F/2.8L II (we already know about this), 35L II, 200-400 2x, etc? Could it be indicative of less lenses being returned to Canon? Is Canon moving away from the practice of refurbishing and selling directly to the public? Or is this normal?

 

[preppyak]

They just had a 15% off friends and family sale, so they removed quite a few lenses just before that. It was 4 pages long just 4-5 days ago before the sale started, and since it just ended, I wouldn't be surprised to see the page go back to its 4-5 page normal self.

Seems they just didn't want to sell some of the nicer refurb L lenses at an additional 15% off what are already 10-15% off prices

 

[mistabernie]

That makes sense, didn't even think about that, very good point. I would think they could simply say 'on select lenses' and provide the list of what it didn't apply to, but I guess that method works a bit better if it's Canon.

That being said, I hope they come back. BH wants $2199 for a refurb 70-200 F2.8L II, which doesn't make any sense when you can buy brand new w/ full warranty for $2299..

 

[Random Orbits]

If anything, I hope the lists get longer. I'd love to see the 70-300L, 5DIII and the TS-E lenses listed and then go on sale. ;D

 

[mistabernie]

True, it would be nice to see Canon add some of their newer lenses to the lineup. 8-15 Fisheye please?

 

[Mt Spokane Photography]

True, it would be nice to see Canon add some of their newer lenses to the lineup. 8-15 Fisheye please?

The Canon person I talked with told me that some lenses or bodies simply do not have enough refurbs to make them worthwhile to list. Presumably, this means that dealers like Adorama take all they can get. You can often find refurbs at Adorama, sometimes its a better deal.

 

[FunPhotons]

You guys assume that a company like Canon actually has a brain, like a single, functioning intelligence. Big companies like that (I work for one) operate via osmosis, not intelligence. Different departments, different thinking .... in this case I doubt that marketing intelligence (again there really isn't one there, just a collective of some form probably) is actively controlling refurb sales.

The other part is that they have a huge user base, marketeers don't try to have that fine grained control - it's nonsensical with the sales and markets they sell into.

My 3 cents

 

[mistabernie]

Looks like they're back up to the four pages of lenses.. including a couple of relatively rare items in stock refurbished...