Kodachrome 64 Price Gouging at B&H ??

<p>So Mr. Posner,<br>

Are you saying that the reason for your small 40% price increase is so you can pass along lower prices, or free shipping, on other items?<br>

That if, by some accident, your bottom line increases by selling to more appreciative, non-"dilettante" customers, you will lower prices so as to avoid "unsavory opportunism"?<br>

Am I understanding you correctly?<br>

Yours truly,<br>

(a formerly satisfied B&H "dilettante" customer)</p>

<p> </p>

<p>I assume that B&H's critics here, if they're trying to sell a lightly used lens and Canon or Nikon increases the price of that lens (thereby increasing the used lens's value), will not increase their asking price for the used item. After all, "they already paid for it and the demand should not affect the asking price," so they should only ask what they could have gotten for the lens <em>before </em> the Canon/Nikon price increase, right? :)</p>

<p>What a jump, from economics to relativity. And from pure capitalist supply-demand to help pay the warehouse guy.</p>

<p>Well, Mr. Posner, as a customer, I find your statement unsatisfactory. But I am one of them folks "who have not thought about all the parameters of the situation", as I do every time I buy film, BTW. I hope you consider "the parameters of your customer situations as well" when charging our credit cards :-).</p>

<p>If your idea of taking customer comments seriously is to criticize them, think that maybe it's the wrong path to take. I must say I am becoming quite disappoined with B&H today.</p>

<p><em>Moderator's Note: A racial/ethnic comment on a post previously made has now been removed, along with references to it. That slipped by this moderator while traveling and having limited access to the web.</em></p>

<p>Thank you. Much appreciated. I hope your travel was for pleasure and was pleasurable.</p>

<p><em>If your idea of taking customer comments seriously is to criticize them...</em></p>

<p>The only person I criticized was the individual whose now-deleted post was so unpleasant.</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /> <strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong> <em><br /> </em></p>

<p>Please, Mr. Posner, You know that that wasn't the person I was referring to. But "folks who presume this is some sort of unsavory opportunistic price gouging have not thought through all the parameters of the situation". It was perfectly clear in my post.</p>

<p>Really really disappointed.</p>

<p><em>Really really disappointed.</em></p>

<p>I am sorry you're disappointed. I was disappointed by "Kodachrome 64 Price Gouging at B&H ??" IMO it's a shame when a retailer with a 35+ year history of the highest standards of ethical integrity is all but accused of something as unsavory as price gouging. I was disappointed too that my post, so reasonably accepted and understood elsewhere online, is subject to such misinterpretation here, where I've been an active member of these forums for more than a decade. Maybe I'm just thin-skinned.</p>

<p>You have my apology for having offended you.</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /> <strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>Thank you, apology accepted</p>

 

<p >all the people who are so disappointed in B&H increase of the price imagine this:</p>

<p >YOU own a store and sell k64 and on Monday Kodak announces that it discontinues K64. you wouldn't increase the price? i highly doubt it. </p>

<p >I think your complains would be justifiable if they doubled the price, but a couple of $ for something you love using and that will be available for only several months doesn’t sound that bad.</p>

 

<blockquote>

<p>is it possible that kodak is selling the last of kodachrome for higher price? does anybody know?</p>

</blockquote>

 

<blockquote>

<p>How do we know that B&H, Adorama and others aren't simply passing along a price increase from Kodak?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>To respond to this question. <strong>I have been informed by my contacts at Kodak that they have not raised their prices on Kodachrome at all in regards to the announcement of it being discontinued.</strong> Any price increases (or "clearance" decreases) you might see are a retailer choice.</p>

<p>That having been said:</p>

<p>The US operates on a free market system. Supply and demand drives prices. It is why potatoes cost less from a roadside stand in Idaho than they do an New York City supermarket. There are a ton of potatoes in ID and it's easy to get them, therefore people won't pay as much. There are fewer places that produce potatoes in NYC so people are willing to pay more to get something that they can't make. Prices are set by what the market will bear. It is why Leica can sell a $4000 digital camera while Canon sells a $400 one. Leica created and sells that product because people will buy it. It is the whole reason that ebay works. Things sell on ebay for exactly what someone will pay for them and not a penny more.</p>

<p>Don't like this? I don't know what to tell you. I guess you have two choices, Vote with your wallet and don't buy whatever it was from where ever you are were going to buy it, or find a country with a government controlled market and live there.</p>

<p>As far as B&H goes, they have never been anything but completely honest and professional in the 10+ years I have been dealing with them. They are on the very short list of retailers who get my photographic purchasing money.</p>

<p>Finally, any more ethnic or personal attacks and I'll just close this thread and boot out those who can't play nice. The site doesn't need that kind of crap. You want to fight? Take it behind the tennis courts after school like we did in elementary school.</p>

<p>Maybe I'm crazy but when things are discontinued, aren't there usally closeout sales to liquidate inventory that was not not selling. Kodachrome wasn't sellig - that why it was discontinued.</p>

<p>in 18 months all unused Kodachrome is worthless- there be no place to get it processed. If I had a store full of Kodachrome. I be happy to sell it at any price.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>As far as B&H goes, they have never been anything but completely honest and professional in the 10+ years I have been dealing with them. They are on the very short list of retailers who get my photographic purchasing money.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Thank you. I'd be grateful for these comments under any circumstances, but doubly so, considering the source.</p>

<p>Henry Posner<br /> <strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>Josh: I like your potato theory. I hope there's a stand outside the nikon factory when I visit Japan. You think they sell by the pound. Dreaming</p>

<p>But seriously. I second Joshs statement. B&H is one of the most reputable and honest stores to deal with. AlI've once meet Henry in person after communicating with him on a Nikon forum elsewhere years ago. A pure professional</p>

<p>I think this thread has run its course. Sounds like everyone's pretty much said all there is to be said.</p>

<p>I'm with Josh. I've bought from B&H on several occasions and found their prices reasonable, their service fast, and their shipping often free. It's one of the first web sites I look at when I'm considering buying a photography item. I did order some Kodachrome from them at the current price, after deciding that the few rolls I had already ordered might not be enough and that if I don't shoot it all I can always offset the high price by selling the extras on Ebay at a profit (at the very high prices that are guaranteed in the 16-month window to come when you can't buy Kodachrome but you can get it developed).</p>

<p>See, anybody can do a bit of free market dealing here and there, and buying items low and selling them high on Ebay is one of the ways I support my photo gear habit, so I don't begrudge B&H (or Adorama or any of the other retailers that increased their price) a dollar or two. They're just trying to stay profitable in a down market, same as the rest of us. One of the first things we were taught in professional practice class in architecture school was that in business you have the right to try to make profit, and so does everybody else.</p>

<p>Well, I've not read the entire thread, but I did read a few of the pertinent replies from Henry Posner, and I too am a little disappointed. Saying that hiking the price means that it can be made available to people who really appreciate Kodachrome is disingenuous at best; insulting at worst. I have been a loyal customer at B+H since I moved to this country ten years ago, and I will remain so, but hiking the price on an item that is already in stock like this is a little galling.</p>

<p>I hope that nobody involved in this pricing decision bitched about the sudden extreme rise in gas prices last year, because this is exactly the same thing. You can shout 'supply and demand' as loud as you like, but it doesn't necessarily make it right.</p>

<p>Peace.</p>

<blockquote>

<p><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=3931935">Dave Carroll</a> , Jun 24, 2009; 07:05 p.m.<br /> Well, I've not read the entire thread, but I did read a few of the pertinent replies from Henry Posner, and I too am a little disappointed. Saying that hiking the price means that it can be made available to people who really appreciate Kodachrome is disingenuous at best; insulting at worst. I have been a loyal customer at B+H since I moved to this country ten years ago, and I will remain so, but hiking the price on an item that is already in stock like this is a little galling.</p>

</blockquote>

<p>We will have to agree to disagree. It's to bad you didn't read the entire thread. I think doing so might have given you a more complete picture of a thread whose title strongly (and inaccurately) suggests we'd stoop to an unsavory business practice of questionable ethics after 35+ years of absolute ethical integrity.<br>

I don't think any of my earlier comments were disingenuous OR insulting. Like B&H, I too have a lengthy history of ethical integrity here and elsewhere online and wouldn't compromise that hard-earned reputation over the sad slow death of Kodachrome or the price charged for the last few rolls.<br>

Finally, Kodachrome was not in stock when the price was increased. In fact I don't think we had the opportunity to sell a single roll at the price now being protested to vociferously, a price which has since (in no small part due to this thread) been lowered.</p>

<p>Henry Posner<strong><br /> B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>I just wonder why B&H lowered the price? It seems to validate the premise of this thread.</p>

<p>Anyway, FWIW, based on almost 30 years of shopping at B&H, and ALWAYS being a satisfied customer, I would tend to give B&H any benefit of the doubt. I trust Henry and B&H. They've earned it.</p>

<p>I've scanned lots of <a href="http://www.saugus.net/Photos/scanning.shtml">slides and thousands of Kodachromes</a> and the one thing I notice about Kodachrome is that the color rarely faded, even in 50 year old film.</p>

<p>So with the loss of Kodachrome, so goes an archival quality media. I won't miss it though. I've not bought film in 5 years or more.</p>

<p>BTW, B&H gets just about all my photography dollars! Due to B&H's high customer loyalty, me thinks photo.net would have done better to partner with B&H over Adorama.</p>

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<p><a href="../photodb/user?user_id=1657057">Jeffrey Prokopowicz</a> <a href="../member-status-icons"><img title="Subscriber" src="http://static.photo.net/v3graphics/member-status-icons/sub5.gif" alt="" title="Subscriber" /> </a> , Jun 24, 2009; 07:57 p.m.<br /> I just wonder why B&H lowered the price? It seems to validate the premise of this thread.</p>

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<p>Because <em><strong>I</strong> </em> found it and showed it to our buyer and discussed the situation with him.</p>

<blockquote>

<p>Anyway, FWIW, based on almost 30 years of shopping at B&H, and ALWAYS being a satisfied customer, I would tend to give B&H any benefit of the doubt. I trust Henry and B&H. They've earned it.</p>

 

</blockquote>

 

<p>Thank you.<br>

Henry Posner<br /> <strong>B&H Photo-Video</strong></p>

<p>This thread is done. I'm closing it. You want to have further discussions with B&H about the subject, call them.</p>