I have been saying this since the days of the 30% cashback days but sellers all raised their prices or slightly lowered them in sync with the Bing cashback percentages. And this was over and above the lense price increases of last year.

For example eBay prices, new and used, usually resulted in a price slightly below retail at most of the major online retailers rather than the better deals which once existed on eBay. And my observations were based on both buying Canon as well as Pentax gear as well as other new items.

I just felt across the board the Bing cashback program was very inflationary. It will be quite interesting to see the results because there WILL be a sales drop off once this program ends. But if the camera makers all moved to an "agency pricing model" then we might see an interesting shift in what camera lines are carried because the agency model does not in anyway allow for competition between resellers and lets the mfg completely control the price consumers pay.

Just sort of feel right now is the time to WAIT not make a mad dash to spend before the program ends. It's a roll of the dice but companies need us far more than we need them because there is always the used market and with the ability to buy warranties which cover used items a warranty that comes with new items is no longer the factor it once was...

So, I am rolling the dice that retailers are going to HAVE to begin competing on price again, or we will find out there is mfg control over pricing to the consumer, which is not legal in many states. Maryland is one such state and it's law covers online merchants as well. Gonna be an interesting rest of the year I suspect...

[Ed n Georgia]

You could be right. I noticed as soon as the original 30% Cashback went into effect that e-bay sellers raised their prices.

i don't think you'll see a major rollback in prices, but you might see a little.

Microsoft has also said that they are working on another promotion to replace "Cashback"

[brecklundin]

Hey EnD,

Thanks that I wasn't the only person to do a double take on the prices. And yeah, if we see a 10% rollback I would be surprised. And I hope MS does not try a different plan. The way I look at the Bing Cashback thing was it created nearly 8%-30% (used the same numbers for simplicity sakes before the nit pickers come along and point out the percentages are not exactly the same from the seller side) more profit for the sellers while at the same time increasing the prices w/o losing business.

Of course I am, in general not a fan of rebates or any other such "deals" because, well, someone has to make up that difference, right?

As of now I am almost limited to used prices cuz my danged doc put me on a new med for my RA that is running nearly a grand a month and the really BAD PART is the med is working very well, in fact better than any other patient he has using it...hehehehe...and that really pisses me off!! hehehehehe....Then again, I won't die w/o it for a month or two...a guy has to have priorities, right?