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06-28-2011, 11:11 PM   #91
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I bought a K5 body on Friday from Vanbar. I wasn't interested in buying a body OS although I don't mind buying lenses that way (or second hand) since if something goes wrong I like to be able to leave it with the shop to sort out. The body was a replacement for a K7 that was stolen while on holiday in Germany, so I didn't want to hang aroud waiting for possible price drops.

Anyway I did the rounds of the Elizabeth St stores with the following results:
Camera House - $1650
Michaels - $1650 (but they had to see whether they could split a kit as they had no body only sets)
Teds - $1750 (down from $1800 list)

Then I wandered up to Vanbar and they had a K5 body in the showcase with a price of $1595. The price on the computer however was (about, I can't remember exactly ) $1800. The guy serving me noted that the price appeared to have gone up! I pointed out the price tag in the showcase and he said they would honour that price, so that was that.

I'm guessing that the Tsunami has lead to some stock shortages and prices have been adjusted accordingly. I had ordered a 60-250 four months ago at a local shop and am still waiting for that to arrive. At the time nobody had it in stock and then a month later the Tsunami happened so it seems my timing was poor. It seems that even if a lens is assembled in Vietnam it will contain parts from Japan (probably the glass for a start).

06-28-2011, 11:20 PM   #92
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QuoteOriginally posted by Paul Ewins Quote
I'm guessing that the Tsunami has lead to some stock shortages and prices have been adjusted accordingly. I had ordered a 60-250 four months ago at a local shop and am still waiting for that to arrive. At the time nobody had it in stock and then a month later the Tsunami happened so it seems my timing was poor. It seems that even if a lens is assembled in Vietnam it will contain parts from Japan (probably the glass for a start).
Pentax stated in their internal Q&A re the Q that the tsunami didn't directly effect Pentax operations at all as their entire manufacturing base is outside Japan, however, they went on to note that some of the parts supplier they are dealing with are affected by the disaster and they had switched out to a number of newer vendors to compensate.

So it definitely hasn't effected current stock, and according to Pentax, as of 23/6, hadn't caused any impact.... and last word was price was going down not up... especially since back on the 16/6 CR Kennedy were prepared to price match at ~$1100 - see https://www.pentaxforums.com/forums/1536360-post34.html
06-28-2011, 11:24 PM   #93
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DCW (in Northcote) has it for $1,569 and JBHiFi (Elizabeth St) offered to beat DCW by ~$30. That's as good as I've seen from a B&M store locally. A far cry from shopbot.com.au prices.
06-28-2011, 11:26 PM   #94
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QuoteOriginally posted by twitch Quote
DCW (in Northcote) has it for $1,569 and JBHiFi (Elizabeth St) offered to beat DCW by ~$30. That's as good as I've seen.
Why not mail CRK like Lurch did ?

06-28-2011, 11:29 PM   #95
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QuoteOriginally posted by adr1an Quote
Why not mail CRK like Lurch did ?
Yeah I will. I was hoping for the price cut locally to eventuate but I can't wait much longer...
06-28-2011, 11:32 PM   #96
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QuoteOriginally posted by twitch Quote
Yeah I will. I was hoping for the price cut locally to eventuate but I can't wait much longer...
I suspect that might end up like waiting for your ISP to automatically switch you to a better plan
06-28-2011, 11:58 PM   #97
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Crap, AUD$1600 body only... no wonder you guys only work till 5pm everyday.

I'm getting my K5 in Singapore soon, under <AUD$1200... (they recently has a price drop)

06-29-2011, 12:16 AM   #98
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QuoteOriginally posted by Hide Quote
.... no wonder you guys only work till 5pm everyday.
Wow - 5pm - That late? Was there drinks on after work ?
06-30-2011, 01:13 AM   #99
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I'm starting to save for a K5 body, I'll have to sell a couple of lens as I'll need to make up some money for it. I sure hope the price goes down a bit here. Can't believe the difference, but then I saw what huge differences there were in prices for the 77mm LTD here too.
07-01-2011, 06:59 PM   #100
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Does nobody else see an issue with the situation in Australia though? CR Kennedy is the sole official importer of Pentax products, and is meant to be a wholesaler, not a retailer. None of the B&M shops in Australia seem to get within cooee of the international prices, even when you negotiate hard with them, which implies that their wholesale price is already well above the international retail prices.

Yet CR Kennedy is willing to undercut them for customers who contact them directly wanting a price match. Which means that presumably they can still make some sort of profit on it, even at the greatly reduced price. However, the retailers don't seem to be able to drive such a hard bargain with CRK because they all seem stuck around the same price levels.

Does it strike anyone that perhaps the problem is with CR Kennedy here? How come they can undercut their own wholesale prices when going direct to customers (which is kind of like Telstra offering its own internet plans at less than wholesale prices to other ISPs - which they got in trouble for)?

If CRK is serious about keeping the money in Australia, perhaps they need to look at reducing their wholesale prices to Australian retailers and letting everyone here get the benefit of competitive prices, rather than some dodgy back-door dealing with direct customers in the know. I'm sure there are lots of people that would much prefer to buy from a shop at a reasonable price with an Australian warranty, but 50% mark-ups over online prices will push those people overseas.

(By the way, I picked up the Pentax DA* 300mm direct from CRK for $1500, when the absolute lowest price I could find in a shop was $2500. I doubt it's the shops insisting on a $1000 margin...)
07-01-2011, 07:42 PM   #101
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Well - CRK state they only price match as a last resort in order to keep the inventory sale here in Oz, i.e, on 'their' book. It would hurt CRK *lots* more to buy it O/S - as that in no way shape or form accounts towards them as a distributor. if they ultimately have to sell it to you *at cost* - then thats sort of ok, because *at cost* is better than *not at all*.

Note CRK also import/distribute Sigma, Hasselbad, iRiver and more...

Could CRK reduce the overall cost; Sure they could, and in the process most likely decimiate what little margins they still retain - I know a few people that have happily paid 'retail' .. which offsets your 'cheap' lens ...

AND got them 2 'sales' in the books.. which means they can retain the Distribution... A lot of wholesale is... ironically.. about Politics

Also - remember that this is the country of 4 weeks annual leave, recently increased minimum wage, annual leave for casuals, 12% Superannuation etc....
Just how cheap, compared to an 'online store', do you think we could ever *get* a camera from a 'bricks and mortar'.

I'm not complaining about our workforce protections - but you can't "Have your cake and eat it to". It costs a lot to run a Retail Operation... far more than most people provide any allowances for when they complain about the high prices....

If you however, KNOW of a *sure fire* method to
A: Sell Cameras at the equivalent price of Online Operations/ Large Scale Chains (Nothing comes close to B+H/Adorama in oz... Heck, Abes of Maine probably outsells Ted's nationally!)
B: Having a physical prescence in every state capital - say $35,000-$50,000 EACH per year for a shoe-box shop....
C: Able to employ the minimum, what, 14 people you'd need if you worked each of them 8 hrs a Day at each store ?

You stand to make a *fortune* in this country as a Business Analyst

Last edited by adr1an; 07-01-2011 at 08:04 PM.
07-01-2011, 08:21 PM   #102
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Well a final update from me. This was my experience...

Firstly, I should point out that I live in remote WA, so after Pentax didn't respond witha price to my local Retravision, online shopping was the only way I was going to be buying.

After quite a few (5) emails between myself & CRK, I got the inital ""new price in about a week" advice (now nearly 3 weeks ago). After over 2 weeks (thinking it might be a PMA announcement), I contacted CRK again. This lead to "have you contacted DCW", which I did. DCW knew nothing about any price change. Since advising CRK of this response... nothing.

So now I'm getting no response, which is most disappointing (or I'm just a bit impatient - I was getting responses same day).

I think I've done all in my power to keep the $$ in Australia - I wouldn't mind paying the GST on top of the price matched overseas price - I like to be reasonable. But I'm not going to be a chump for the distributor and pay a 40-60% premium to keep the money in Australia. No local warranty is worth 40% of the replacement cost.

And yes, I think the problem is with the wholesaler (not sure if it's CRK or Pentax itself). No wonder no-one wants to stock Pentax here - the retailers are getting royally screwed.

In the end, I bought from T-Dimensions today, who I have used before. Including postage, my new K5 plus a few bits n pieces AUD$1160. Best price I could get here was $1569 + p/h (that's just for the body, no 'bits n pieces').

So it's going to be a long week waiting for my package to arrive, but I'm SO EXCITED!! Just enough time to make the transition from the K10D and rock up to my weekend photography workshop in Cape Le Grand National Park with Dan Paris!! Woo hoo, bring on spring!!

We all know now that the price drop will happen on Monday, don't we? LOL.
07-01-2011, 08:30 PM   #103
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disappointing and typical for me as well in dealings with crk, to be honest if funny AF issues were not enough to push me away from pentax then the way CRK handles customers is major turn off for me.
07-01-2011, 08:49 PM   #104
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CRK don't give a hoot, I told them that I can get a K5 with 18-135 WR lens, for what they are charging for K5 body only. Their response was but you don't get warranty with that.
07-01-2011, 09:35 PM   #105
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slightly different subject but interested in this audiences (Aussie) opinions on this scenario...

I'm not prepared to buy a 60-250/5 with SDM so are buying Nikon camera/lens/tele zoom/flash combo. About $4.5k worth individually. Sent emails to two places (both do have online 'stores' as well as b&m). I enquired if they could do a 'package deal' on the nominated items. 1st place responded quickly with 'prices as per web' (no package deal) and the 2nd didn't reply at all.

Should I expect to be able to get a bit of a discount buying 4 items as once?

I wonder if JB can order anything from manufacturers... they'll at least work on the price with me a bit!

Cheers, Nige
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