[rod_grant]

K3 Arrived at camera house in bendigo will pick up in the morning
Tony

Hi Tony.
By my experience of Camera House Bendigo (Pope is the owner?) I bet you had to order it in! Back in the K5 days he didn't have one in, and didn't intent to get one.
Clem Kennedy claimed to have a good relationship with him though!

[rawr]

Clem Kennedy claimed to have a good relationship with him though!

Since CRK are also the Australian distributors for Slik, Metz, Sigma, Tamrac, SanDisk, Black Rapid, Vanguard, Hoya, Tokina, Xrite, Eye-fi, Hasselblad, Ilford, even Lenspen, they probably have a good enough relationship with local camera retailers already, without Pentax ever needing to be part of the discussion

[adelante]

Ordered mine last night through Camera Warehouse for $1310.00 including freight which is a very good price. It's a combined birthday / Christmas present till 2016 according to my wife who will get my K5 as a hand me down. Her K7 goes on Ebay on the weekend. Now I'm excited!

[RobA_Oz]

I think I'll ask for a spotter's fee at Camera Warehouse, next time! They've certainly done good business from people here, and so they should. It'd be interesting know how well the K-3 has done in Australia, to date. I doubt that CRK would release their sales figures, but a comparison with the K-5 initial sales wouldn't give too much away.

[RobA_Oz]

Hi Tony.
By my experience of Camera House Bendigo (Pope is the owner?)…

Wow! I wondered what the Vatican did with the proceeds of their arms investment sales a few years back.

[Teal]

For those still looking for a K3 to put under your Christmas tree, DigiDirect in Sydney CBD still have it. So does George's around the corner. Paxton's sold out when I went there last week, but may have new ones now maybe.
I managed to get all three to $1290 (inc Flu Card) but only George's and Paxton's were able to give me an extra year warranty.
Teds just snob Pentax.

[RobA_Oz]

Since CRK are also the Australian distributors for Slik, Metz, Sigma, Tamrac, SanDisk, Black Rapid, Vanguard, Hoya, Tokina, Xrite, Eye-fi, Hasselblad, Ilford, even Lenspen, they probably have a good enough relationship with local camera retailers already, without Pentax ever needing to be part of the discussion

Nonetheless, what do you reckon the wholesale markup on the K-3 body is? A little arithmetic may be instructive: if, say, the wholesaler aims for 10% of the retail value of the product (I'm guessing what it might be for a camera body) and they only sold 1,000 K-3 bodies every year, that would be $130,000 profit before overheads, interest and tax. That's enough to pay the wages and overheads of 1.5 non-managerial people in their import, sales, despatch and marketing divisions. I could be way out with those figures, of course, and they would no doubt have an overhead formula to determine the nett profit on each item, but you get the idea.

Then, of course, there's the K-50/500 bodies, Q bodies and lenses. They would sell more of the lower-priced bodies, one would think, but each one of those would contribute less than a K-3. The lenses are anybody's guess, but with the internationalisation of Pentax lens pricing, they'd have to be selling more locally, now, and the opportunity to sell even more must surely be an incentive to try even harder.

We're not talking sheep stations here, but if you were them, would you be excluding discussion about Pentax with your retailers? If you have a low-volume product that is capable of being converted into a higher-volume product, you'd be pushing pretty hard, I'd venture.

[DaveXT]

I think I'll ask for a spotter's fee at Camera Warehouse, next time! They've certainly done good business from people here, and so they should. It'd be interesting know how well the K-3 has done in Australia, to date. I doubt that CRK would release their sales figures, but a comparison with the K-5 initial sales wouldn't give too much away.

Yeah, thanks for the heads up!

[RobA_Oz]

Yeah, thanks for the heads up!

Glad to be of service…

[useless]

BG-5 Battery grip for K3 on ebay from dcxpert.$229

[RobA_Oz]

BG-5 Battery grip for K3 on ebay from dcxpert.$229

Not a bad price - Pentax Web Shop is $249, but watch out for freight and credit card charges from all suppliers, because they can kill any advertised purchase price advantage.

[useless]

$229 free post

[RobA_Oz]

$229 free post

Can't beat that!

[RobA_Oz]

Now, here's an intriguing little postscript to Pentax prices in Australia. I recall paying $210 for my new Spotmatic F in 1974. According to an on-line inflation Calculator, $210 in December 1974 is worth $1,507 in December 2013. You could say that, in terms of pricing, nothing much has changed in nearly 40 years, except that in 1974, the Spotmatic F was the second level Pentax (the ES was sold from 1972, and I didn't manage to get hold of one (second-hand) until 1977). So, maybe we are doing better now, especially if you're prepared to wait a while, until the price falls.

[dosdan]

Now, here's an intriguing little postscript to Pentax prices in Australia. I recall paying $210 for my new Spotmatic F in 1974. According to an on-line inflation Calculator, $210 in December 1974 is worth $1,507 in December 2013.

Not sure which Australian inflation calc you used, but the RBA quarterly inflation calc, which only extends to Sep quarter 2013, has $210 (Dec 1974) -> $1697.96 (Sep 2013).

That's 607.5%, in 38 yrs 3 qtrs, at an avg. annual inflation rate of 5.2%.

http://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/quarterDecimal.html

Dan.