How to bargain in camera shops

[Winmar]

Righty folks, I'm looking at buying a new camera in the next couple of weeks, and I'm shit at bargaining. I don't know who's had experience in it, but can you give me any pointers? There are two scenarios:

1. Two or more shops have the same camera.
2. Only one shop is stocking a particular camera (as far as I can see).

A different tactic is presumably required in each scenario, as in 2 it's a tad harder to say it's cheaper down the road.

Any thoughts?

 

[dreamwatch]

1. Do your research in all the local camera shops - do any of them have a price match/beat policy? Don't lie to them about what the place down the road is doing it for, they will already know and they'll just tell you to fuck off and buy it from the other guy. See if they will match internet retailers.

1&2. Tell them your interested in the camera, you want to put a kit together with whatever accessories you need and ask them if they will do you a deal on that. Camera shops make very little money off the cameras, it's all in the add ons baby. Any shop that still works on a commission basis will pay higher rates of commission on the add ons too. So if you tell them you're buying a case, batteries, memory, etc they will be more likely to sway in price. Add ons also have much higher mark up, so there is going to be more sway in those things being discounted.

Good luck.

 

[Mark]

Damn, she beat me to it.

 

[MeKaChrOme]

Not related directly to your points, but consider buying it online........ Particularly for digital cameras. What exactly you after? If it's digital, check out

www.dirtcheapcameras.com.au -> I've bought from them, usually quite cheap, good service.

www.centre.net.au -> haven't bought from them, but have heard good things about em.

I just did a quick comparison of a few cams just advertised by Camera House - dirtcheapcameras was cheaper by over $100 in 3 out of 4 cases.

 

[Arcane]

My experiences with dirtcheapcameras was quite good also.

Some of the ebay sellers are decent also, especially for dSLR gear.

 

[MeKaChrOme]

yep good point, only thing you have to watch out for is warranty issues with ebay sellers, as some of em sell overseas units. I also forgot to mention if you're keen you can save a bundle buying it overseas (e.g. from the US), but it obviously depends on the camera.

 

[Shannow]

Look around, then look on ebay.

I picked up my digital camera (Canon A520) for $120 less than the local blokes were selling for, and that was the "buy it now" price. Paid on Sunday, arrived on Wednesday.

 

[Mark]

Yes, you could buy it on eBay if a warranty isn't something you're too concerned about. Otherwise I'd buy it in a store. You should find out what warranty/returns policy a store has anyway.

 

[Shannow]

You're pretty OK warranty wise if you buy from an Oz dealer, as opposed to an imported item.

 

[Spruce Goose]

OK.... The best advice I can give you is to go to JB HIFI and get it there.
The staff there get commision and will pretty much do anything to make the sale.

I bought a camera at the start of the year. First I found the model I wanted by checking out a good camera shop. Then I rang around and got the cheapest price (I think the cheapest I found was around $700). I then rang JB HIFI and told them the model number and that I was ringing around asking for the lowest price. They guy asked me what the lowest price was. I told him $600, and he said 'Alright mate, best I can do is $550. That saved me $150 right there. Make sure you get the persons name and then go in the same day and grab it from him.

 

[MeKaChrOme]

You're pretty OK warranty wise if you buy from an Oz dealer, as opposed to an imported item.

Yeah not a prob if it's an Oz dealer, but some of them are "australian" but the business is in Asia somewhere..... I'm not sure what warranty is on them. But with most of the big name manufactureres they will honour overseas warranties, so it's not a problem even if they aren't based in Oz.

 

[dreamwatch]

If you're going to buy online then be very careful of any Canon products - their warranties are continent specific and they do not like to honour them outside of the original market. Pretty much everyone else offers you world wide, but even then if it's been bought in a different market than the repair centre you can find you are bumped to the back of the queue repeatedly for any work you may need to have done. Of course, they don't all go wrong, but if you are buying online make sure you do your research on the specific model you after. It is common for product lines to go out a little too early shall we say (*cough* Canon *cough*), and to have issues that your ebay seller isn't going to give a fuck about.

 

[Mark]

Shannow, I was referring more to eBay purchases Doh!

 

[MeKaChrOme]

Yeah Canon are dodgy in that regard. I was thinking of buying a canon DSLR body from the U.S., and rang Canon Oz about the warranty... they said they are under no legal obligation to honour U.S. warranty, but they do so out of goodwill. I haven't heard of too many people having issues with Canon Oz about not honouring overseas warranty... And as Dreamy said, they don't all go wrong... There's a pretty good chance it won't break down in the first year anyway!

 

[Goreripper]

If you're still looking Rob, drop me a PM. I know someone who's selling a Kodak digital.

 

[Hanso]

Go to shopbot.com.au and search for the camera you are interested in.
Find the cheapest online price for the camera and then call all the major stores and ask them if they can match the price.
I did this when looking for a panasonic luminx fx8 that retails for $700 and ended up getting it at good guys for $547.

 

[Winmar]

Thanks for all your help, folks. The one I've been looking at in the last few days (Olympus IR-300) seems to be cheaper at JB than anywhere online, which is unusual. It's $297 at JB, but seems to be over $400 in a lot of places online.

Btw, do you know much about that camera, Bev?

 

[dreamwatch]

My own personal preference for compacts (both film and digital) is Olympus, so I'm generally a fan. This is a very sweet little camera, and picture quality is good. I found this link that might be useful to you - its always nice to see what the cameras capable of before you part with the readies. http://mikese-1.freeservers.com/photo.html He admits to some Photoshop sharpening, but thats no biggy - you'd have to do that with a £5000 DSLR too. XD cards a little more expensive than SD but they're getting cheaper so thats not such a biggy, and unless you don't format your card regularly you shouldn't really need to replace any cards in the future. Thats a fucking good price too.

 

[Hanso]

dreamwatch is that Bill Hicks you have for your avatar?

 

[Mark]

Certainly is *bows to the Great Bill*