Aussies & B&H

maddernc · December 15, 2005

Howdy All

Have any Aussie grinners bought anything from B&H??
Given our dollar is looking fair healthy against the greenback at the moment there are some considerable savings to be made on L series lens.

All the best

Cain

DanielB · December 15, 2005

maddernc wrote:

Howdy All

Have any Aussie grinners bought anything from B&H??
Given our dollar is looking fair healthy against the greenback at the moment there are some considerable savings to be made on L series lens.

All the best

Cain

you should PM Skippy:): . he'll help ya out

maddernc · December 15, 2005

Thanks Daniel I will do

:

wxwax · December 15, 2005

Humungous ran into some issues once, can't remember what they were. You might send him a PM too. (I think he'll be in and out of here over the holiday.)

gtc · December 15, 2005

no worries
bought from them a few times and have never had a problem-remember 10% GST payable on any purchase over $1000aud, plus shipping ,takes the gloss off

maddernc wrote:

Howdy All

Have any Aussie grinners bought anything from B&H??
Given our dollar is looking fair healthy against the greenback at the moment there are some considerable savings to be made on L series lens.

All the best

Cain

herion · December 15, 2005

gtc wrote:

bought from them a few times and have never had a problem-remember 10% GST payable on any purchase over $1000aud, plus shipping ,takes the gloss off

I was in B&H on Tuesday and met an Aussie (David) purchasing memory cards for his Minolta.

maddernc · December 15, 2005

gtc wrote:

bought from them a few times and have never had a problem-remember 10% GST payable on any purchase over $1000aud, plus shipping ,takes the gloss off

Thanks Greg

Yes the 10% GST is a downer but when you are talking larger L series glass, the difference is considerable. Canon australia way over charge.

Skippy · December 16, 2005

Another Problem with B&H

maddernc wrote:

Thanks Greg

Yes the 10% GST is a downer but when you are talking larger L series glass, the difference is considerable. Canon australia way over charge.

You cannot purchase any item that costs more than $1,500.00 USA using a Credit Card.

This figure has to include Postage as well, the total price cannot go over $1,500.00 ...... long as what your after is less than that you still need to do your home work and figure out what Customs is going to hit you for, what the exchange rate is, and what the postage on top of it is.

If you get picked up at Customs (incoming mail) you will be required to hire a Customs Broker to fill out the paper work, and if you are like me and live far enough away from the airport that added another $89 to the price.

So you need to have a look at a few websites like centre.net.au and get a base price for here in Australia and compare it with B&H in New York then see if the difference is worth all the hastles......... Skippy (Australia)

I brought all my lenses from B&H in New York

gus · December 16, 2005

DanielB wrote:

you should PM Skippy:): . he'll help ya out

She certainly will

Base down like this....just what skip said.

I paypal'd (paypal is the devil) andy my $ & picked up all my lenses when i was over there in may.

I spoke with a director (i think) of B&H prior to this & they said that they were too concerned about CC fraud to do online stuff from O/S ..remembering that we (ozzies) are direct descendents of convicts.

If you are buying a bit of stuff you can fly over & back & still break even. Getting back through customs with your new gear is easy.

devbobo · December 16, 2005

Skippy wrote:

You cannot purchase any item that costs more than $1,500.00 USA using a Credit Card.

Skip,

You sure about that I recently purchased my 20D, 50mm 1.4, 1GB memory and plus other accessories and it came to just over US$2000.

Cheers,

David

gus · December 16, 2005

They must have changed then

One of the owners is a member here so maybe he will pop in to the thread.

Skippy · December 16, 2005

From B&H ?? using a Credit Card ??

devbobo wrote:

Skip,

You sure about that I recently purchased my 20D, 50mm 1.4, 1GB memory and plus other accessories and it came to just over US$2000.

Cheers,

David

Hmmmmmmmm well I couldn't buy my big white Canon 70-200mm IS USM 2.8 Lens because it went over that amount, I even made phone calls but their cut off amount is set at $1,500 US $ .....that was this year...........ended up getting through a friend in New York instead .

I have purchased all my lenses from B&H except for that one, and the only reason I didnt get that one was because of this rule they have set in place.

Skippy (Australia)

T(h)orsten · December 16, 2005

B&H from Australia
I bought a big lot from B&H into Australia end of Oct (20D + 2x L lens + mem card). If you order big $$ you need a credit card which can be "verified" by BH - what ever that means. Practically you need American Express and as far as I remember you need to fax/ mail a copy for the first buy. Calculate with 2% currenct conversion on Amex + 10% GST - no import duty on camera equipment required. Custom clearance will be done by UPS and costs "quite a few bucks" (call UPS) if parcel is held for customs check.

If your parcel is below 1000 A$ you can be lucky and it goes through customs without check (happened to me once) = no GST. But a big package will most likely be checked and charged.

"Smaller" stuf (filters, memory) I bought from digital-rev-oz on eBay.com.au. Never paid any GST/ customs on top of the shipping charges stated on ebay. Ordered my first lens from them a few days ago (300 + shipping + insurance = 380 A$) and its still approx 100 A$ cheaper than buying locally.

Cheers,
T

Useful link:
http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=4376

maddernc · December 18, 2005

T(h)orsten wrote:

I bought a big lot from B&H into Australia end of Oct (20D + 2x L lens + mem card). If you order big $$ you need a credit card which can be "verified" by BH - what ever that means. Practically you need American Express and as far as I remember you need to fax/ mail a copy for the first buy. Calculate with 2% currenct conversion on Amex + 10% GST - no import duty on camera equipment required. Custom clearance will be done by UPS and costs "quite a few bucks" (call UPS) if parcel is held for customs check.

If your parcel is below 1000 A$ you can be lucky and it goes through customs without check (happened to me once) = no GST. But a big package will most likely be checked and charged.

"Smaller" stuf (filters, memory) I bought from digital-rev-oz on eBay.com.au. Never paid any GST/ customs on top of the shipping charges stated on ebay. Ordered my first lens from them a few days ago (300 + shipping + insurance = 380 A$) and its still approx 100 A$ cheaper than buying locally.

Cheers,
T

Useful link:
http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=4376

Thank you all for the input, its certainly worth considering!! Ah T, T will be interested to hear how you go with digital-rev-oz on ebay as I had also looked at them

The only realplus of buying locally is being able to test/play with the lens before you buy. Also if you are lucky enough the store might have more than one copy of the lens so you can pick the best

Cain

T(h)orsten · December 26, 2005

Buying at digital-rev-oz
maddernc

Buying at digital-rev-oz: I ordered at 13.12. and the item was delivered on 19.12. I bought a "Tamron AF 28-200mm f/3.8-5.6 Aspherical XR IF Macro" plus a UV(0) filter for 400A$ incl shipping and insurance. Most local shops don't have this lens and the "normal" sales price is 499A$.

As I am not a pro, it's hard to make comments on the quality, but I have not noticed any unpleasent surprises yet.

T(h)orsten

Aussies & B&H

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