Be Glad we have B&H

Zanotti

Was traveling in Europe last week and saw this in the store window:




That's the new G9 and if you convert the exchange rate its almost $900!!!

B&H price: about $425........

Does anyone wonder why all our international friends ask if B&H shipps worldwide?

You could fly to NYC, buy all your gear and save more than the plane ticket.

Z

kejago

Yip, we get hammered in Europe. My G9 cost the equivalent €450 / US $ 650 in Switzerland, and Switzerland is reasonable price wise for camera gear in Europe.

Yip, when I eventually shop for my DSLR, I may consider a "holiday" to the US.

The only thing that worries me is the so called "Internation" warranty. From posts I have read here, Nikon will not honour their warrant for cameras baught int he US, but needing repairs in Europe.

I wonder how good Canon are with their warranty?

Dreaming of that 5D some day, which would cost me the equavalant of US$ 3000 here in Switzerland. :cry

Moogle Pepper

The dollar is worth almost 1.65 Euro. ouch. There goes my thoughts to go to Europe this Summer. :cry

PineapplePhoto

Moogle Pepper wrote:

The dollar is worth almost 1.65 Euro. ouch. There goes my thoughts to go to Europe this Summer. :cry

Errr... try South America.

http://articulo.mercadolibre.com.ve/MLV-7905500-canon-g9-ultimo-modelo-12-mp-6x-zoom-_JM

Electronics' price are... out of control

The equivalent in US $ would be 1,395. :nono

henryp

Does anyone wonder why all our international friends ask if B&H shipps worldwide? You could fly to NYC, buy all your gear and save more than the plane ticket.

Thanks! People do fly in, buy all their gear and chalk the savings up to a "free" vacation trip. Whether you fly in or shop online, we're always happy to help.

Internaut

I'm a UK national working for a US company and many of us get the odd business trip to HQ. Most of us arrive here with our suitcases empty (or with no suitcase if we need new luggage) and go home with our suitcases full. The weak dollar works very much to our advantage. I've bought two bodies and four lenses in the last six months (and still thinking about buying a G9 before I leave).

KED

I am SO glad that I have B&H -- almost as glad as they are to have had me over the past year!

evoryware

I'm glad I don't have to fly to N.Y. to go there. Just hop on a 15 minute train ride.
I hear we are even starting to accept Euro's in NYC for the first time in U.S. history.
Keep on coming!

KED

evoryware wrote:

I'm glad I don't have to fly to N.Y. to go there. Just hop on a 15 minute train ride.
I hear we are even starting to accept Euro's in NYC for the first time in U.S. history.
Keep on coming!

I'm surmising that you live in a dollar-denominated economic environment (hard not to in the NYC area), so that won't help you one iota.

evoryware

To a degree tourist will help me. I live in NYC. Tourism is great for business and economy and exposure and just meeting new people to photograph and talk about photography with. So yeah it does help.

DoctorIt

Zanotti wrote:

That's the new G9 and if you convert the exchange rate its almost $900!!!

B&H price: about $425........

Does anyone wonder why all our international friends ask if B&H shipps worldwide?

You could fly to NYC, buy all your gear and save more than the plane ticket.

Z

It's the same here in Australia, where the USD is still stronger. A G9 goes for minimum $800AU = $720US. Which is especially strange to me since Oz is essentially in Asia, and the prices in Hong Kong and Japan on photo gear are the lowest in the world (home market).

Let's just say the Hong Kong based eBay stores do an amazing amount of business down here.

KED

evoryware wrote:

I live in NYC. Tourism is great for business and economy and exposure and just meeting new people to photograph and talk about photography with. So yeah it does help.

Yes I know where Harlem is, I live 15 miles north. From a shooter's perspective, I appreciate what you are saying, but in all other respects, the US$ being on its a** is not a good thing - including that if you are looking to buy gear, whatever brand(s) you shoot, I'm pretty sure it's NOT "made in the U.S.A."

Internaut

The worrying aspect of the $ situation is that it doesn't seem to be reducing imports and stimulating US business to produce more.... That surprised me. I suspect it has to go a lot lower (and eventually cause a lot more pain to everyone in the developed world) before it makes a real comeback.

Still, take comfort: A roll of $50 bills is still the lingua franca of bribing officials in many parts of Africa so in this respect, the $ is still the world's reserve currency.

KED

Internaut wrote:

The worrying aspect of the $ situation is that it doesn't seem to be reducing imports and stimulating US business to produce more.... That surprised me. I suspect it has to go a lot lower (and eventually cause a lot more pain to everyone in the developed world) before it makes a real comeback.

Still, take comfort: A roll of $50 bills is still the lingua franca of bribing officials in many parts of Africa so in this respect, the $ is still the world's reserve currency.

As to your first paragraph, I think one needs to anticipate a significant lagging effect - 12 months minimum, so stay tuned (although in NYC, everything including real estate has already been buoyed by foreign investment).

Paragraph 2: Yes, we (Americans, that is at least) would rue the day that the USD is not the world's reserve currency. Not unforeseeable, for the first time ever, but regrettable nevertheless should it happen. Personally, I think we will be OK in that regard.

Cuong

Moogle Pepper wrote:

The dollar is worth almost 1.65 Euro. ouch. There goes my thoughts to go to Europe this Summer. :cry

Ted, it's actually the other way around (1 Euro = 1.6 USD). We'd all be going to Europe if a dollar were worth more than a Euro.:cry :cry :cry

Cuong

henryp

[OT]: You Are What You Spend

Internaut wrote:

The worrying aspect of the $ situation is that it doesn't seem to be reducing imports and stimulating US business to produce more.... That surprised me. I suspect it has to go a lot lower (and eventually cause a lot more pain to everyone in the developed world) before it makes a real comeback.

There's an op-ed piece in the NYTimes of Feb 10th titled "You Are What You Spend" by two chaps from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. They posit that increased internat'l trade (driven in part by the state of the dollar) lowers prices and increases the ability of the poor and working class to buy hard goods. Prices are also lowered for items imported by US companies allowing them to set lower selling prices too.

I won't synopsize the whole piece here, but it's worth reading.

MY PERSONAL OPINION
- Henry

Moogle Pepper

yukio wrote:

Ted, it's actually the other way around (1 Euro = 1.6 USD). We'd all be going to Europe if a dollar were worth more than a Euro.:cry :cry :cry

Cuong

oh .... oops. I meant 1 euro = 1.6 USD. :cry

JohnnyJr

...which is good news since eventually we'll all be working at Walmart because we don't make things here anymore we just import them. NOT that i'm complaining about all my imported gear bought from B&H.

And hey, where's my stimulus check? I need some new glass and want my free money. Can I get that in Euro please??

henryp wrote:

There's an op-ed piece in the NYTimes of Feb 10th titled "You Are What You Spend" by two chaps from the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. They posit that increased internat'l trade (driven in part by the state of the dollar) lowers prices and increases the ability of the poor and working class to buy hard goods. Prices are also lowered for items imported by US companies allowing them to set lower selling prices too.

I won't synposize the whole piece here, but it's worth reading.

MY PERSONAL OPINION
- Henry

claudermilk

JohnnyJr wrote:

...which is good news since eventually we'll all be working at Walmart because we don't make things here anymore we just import them. NOT that i'm complaining about all my imported gear bought from B&H.

And hey, where's my stimulus check? I need some new glass and want my free money. Can I get that in Euro please??

So I guess I'll have to head out to my company's production floor and tell everyone there that they are just imagining coming in every day and manufacturing product.

Yeah, I know where you're going with that, a lot of goods formerly made here are now made in China, India, or any other third-world country with near-free labor. I think all the recent recalls on Chinese products are giving us a glimpse of the wisdom of that decision.

JohnnyJr

Seriously, I'm really glad that we still have manufactirung here -- it just seems like we've lost so much of that in our economy. Awesome that there's a 'Made by Claudermilk, Inc.' label out there!

claudermilk wrote:

So I guess I'll have to head out to my company's production floor and tell everyone there that they are just imagining coming in every day and manufacturing product.

Yeah, I know where you're going with that, a lot of goods formerly made here are now made in China, India, or any other third-world country with near-free labor. I think all the recent recalls on Chinese products are giving us a glimpse of the wisdom of that decision.