GRAY market photo equipment: how it works ?

I have been always curious to know how works the gray market for

photographic equipment. All cameras,lenses are made in the same

factories and sent to their regional distributors around the world.

How they can make profits when you consider the gray marketers have

to pay for moving the equipment from different parts of the world (I

suppose Hong-Kong)to USA. I suppose they have to buy many cameras at

the same time that represents a lot of money. Why different high

quality cameras makers like Hasselblad and Leica and their

distributors sell to these gray marketers.....All comments are

welcome........J.P.Auger, Canada.

Either three years at business school or a quick perusal of the chapters on Milo Minderbinder in Catch 22 should provide the answer.

the manufacturers make the same money no matter who they sell to. They don't care. (my guess)

To: Jean Pierre Auger---Go to the Topic list at the bottom of the first page of this forum. Click on Hasselblad. Look down the list for about 10 items where there is a question on gray market Hassy lenses. Click on that and you can read about two dozen comments on how and why the gray market exists. I posted a note there on Feb. 6th, so the thread is fairly new. There are some "tongue in cheek" answers but you will also find reasonable comments.

The difference is generally exclusively in the US warrentee. Never haveing owned a 'Grey Market' camera I've heard that the US Warrentee offers its customers a lot more. If you have a Grey Market warrentee odds are you will have a tougher time getting it fixed in the US. So I suppose its like buying a car and taking your chances on not getting any insurance for it.

<i> Never haveing owned a 'Grey Market' camera </i><p>

 

Better not to comment on what one doesn't know about.<p>

 

<i>So I suppose its like buying a car and taking your chances on not getting any insurance for it.

</i><p>

 

The analogy is wrong, as is the implication of this statement. Car insurance is for accidents. A camera warranty is similar to a car warranty (notice that they even use the same word!)<p>

 

So what happens if you buy grey market equipment and it breaks? There's a few choices here. First, at least one (and maybe more) will ignore the fact that the camera was grey. Konica offered to service my Hexar despite my telling them it was grey. Second, reputable dealers will either give a non-manufacturer's warranty or offer a reasonable price on a third party warranty. Third, lousy dealers will do nothing and the customer will have to pay for any service.<p>

 

I've bought most of my equipment either used or grey, and it has never been a problem.

Come come come folks. Does any of you really believe there is such a thing as a free lunch? You can bet your left sock that YOU are paying for your warranties whether you ever use them or not. Sure, they are a form of insurance, but have you ever noticed that on average things break a whole lot more in the years after a warranty expires than they do in the years before it expires.

 

I have owned quite a bit of brand new Hasselblad stuff. some of it bought in the U. S.. Some purchased in Europe. And some purchased in Japan. None of it ever broke in the first three years. One spring on one lens broke after about 4 years from a lens that was purchased in europe. cost me $125 to have the lens completely gone over and spring replaced.

The main point I wish to bring out is that when you pay $2500 for that hasselblad lens that went through the u.s. distributor instead of 1800 for that lens that came from japan you are paying for warranty, salaries, overhead, and advertizing.

 

Kevin

It's sometime just a matter of warehousing and logistics: manufacturers' aren't losing money either way. Have a look at Nikon Canada's site(www.nikon.ca)for an idea of what's in store for anyone looking for service on gray market gear. That's why most items carry serial numbers.

Companies charge what the market will bear, which is more in developed countries - enough more that you can make money buying someplace cheaper and importing. Mamiya in particular has an absolutely rapacious attitude towards the US, encouraged by their having the trademark owned by the American arm of the company, making gray market actually illegal for their equipment. In these companies' defense, it costs more to support a dealer and service network in a more developed country - it seems fair for that money to come from that country's customers.

gray market gear is equipment that has been brought to a market outside of the normal distribution channels. with almost all photo gear, the distributor and mfr. are not the same entity. the distributor buys from the mfr., sometimes performs a little QC (to protect its warranty position), then resells the gear to a retailer (or perhaps another distributor) ADDING A WARRANTY to the bundle. the distributor, not the mfr., bears the warranty cost, and can run it on a pay-as-needed basis, or take out warranty insurance to fix the costs. since a grey market product has been sold outside of this normal chain of distribution, IT DOES NOT USUALLY HAVE A WARRANTY AND A LARGE PART OF THE LOWER PRICE IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE WARRANTY COST IS NOT BUILT INTO THE PRICE. another category of grey market goods (really a subset of the former category) are products produced under license for a company by a local factory for strictly local distribution. these goods, often of inferior quality, can find their way into the grey marketplace at cheap prices. the warranty situation is the same as above.

In practice, I take a fairly middle path. If the body has extensive electronics, I'm willing to pay more for a US warranty in the event that those controls become buggy or die altogether during the warranty period. However, with lenses there is less to go wrong, and the difference in price is occasionally so large that it more than makes up for the risk of having to pay for repair. That said, I must say that only two of the probably 20 or more lenses I own are grey market, and both of them are 35mm format Nikons.