Canon USA statement on Grey Market Products

[Emulator]

I can't see that it's down to any but Canon over here in Europe.

 

[stratman]

Are you sure there aren't laws enacted by your government that affect Canon's pricing? Taxation is not the only potential condition for price structuring. For instance, warranty mandates, under-priced dumping protections, etc. There may be other forces at play that we, the consumer, may be wholly unaware of.

Another question to be asked is why you and not me? It's is not like Canon is the only brand for sale in your country. What is so special about Ireland and the UK compared to the USA concerning retail prices?

Maybe it is your government that is an impediment to lower pricing.

Speaking of pricing... why is gasoline so much more expensive in your country than mine? Not all the cost difference has been due to domestic production in the US, though US domestic production from shale/fracking has certainly brought the cost of refined gas significantly down.

 

[Emulator]

The answer is we don't know, but the discounting is so large in the USA that I think it must be Canon, all the other factors, I would have thought would amount to no more than 20 to 50%. Are you implying that it is dumping in the USA?

 

[stratman]

Are you implying that it is dumping in the USA?

Absolutely. Legally, of course.

Maybe there are tougher laws where you live that do not allow such strategies (eg. undercut the competition in such a fashion so as to create a monopoly).

A question I have is if there is an issue with the Pro-100 that Canon knows about and is why they are discounting the printer so severely?

I do not know the answers to this, but I am sure more knowledgeable people do.

 

[The Hat]

I am glad you have brought up gas prices @stratman because on that one I know exactly why the price is so dear here than it is in the US, it’s our Governments squeezing the last penny out of us and also how much tax, excise and VAT the open market can stand.

Because we share a common border with the UK, both Governments fix the price of fuel between them otherwise there would be a mad dash from one jurisdiction to the other to avail of the cheaper prices, fuel laundering is also a huge problem.

So if two Governments can do it then why not more, we are in the EU where everything is almost controlled, like one big cartel, I bet a lot of UK citizens don’t even know that the price of their gas is being fixed by the Governments on both sides of the Irish Sea.

While Canon Inc. maybe officially represented in the US they are not in the EU, they are just token offices in a tall building somewhere on the mainland.

So I suppose they can easily set the price of their products and the distributors have to grin and bear it, as do we all here in the EU and that goes for the rest of Europe too.

They have even invented a tax on recycling for God’s sake it’s called a Weee charge so when you buy electrical goods (Even a Watch) you have to pay a Weee charge on it up front, it’s only a very small charge but it’s still a charge and then you can recycle the product for free..! !

Weee = Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment

 

[stratman]

I ended up deleting the bit about gas prices but you caught it anyways.

There are recycling charges in the US. California is a high profile taxer. A number of states add a tax to bottles and cans to promote recycling - you get the money back when you return the container. My city allows us to throw out one proscribed item a week if you bring it to the city recycling department. Otherwise, there is a charge. For the taxes we pay in my city they should pick it up from our home!

I doubt the lack of official Canon representation in your country affects pricing much at all. But what the market will bear, as well as market share, does have an effect.

 

[3dogs]

Typical "gray market" prices for cameras and lenses pitches at about 3/4ths general retail here, and is contolled by Customs allowing items with a value below A $1000 to enter duty and sales tax free. This is how complicit establishment protects capialism, and is the umbrella under which "smart" internationals function.
Ireland is still reeling from a economic KING HIT, and to my eyes the current retail pricing there is testiment to wholesale sanctioned corruption. If (as it should have) prices in general had tumbled there and in the UK. one could have said market forces alone were at play. That there was no sudden incentive for me to look to shop in Europe suggests orderly, orchestrated MANAGEMENT by a privilaged, comfortable mass of people who had no cause to move/ change anything. Folks who are doing well, have good incomes, and few pebbles underfoot, are not participating in either this conversation, nor this forum.

Where it is possible to buy at the Factory Door in Asia, NOT CHINA, a person encounters pricing 1/10 to 1/20th retail in the destination Retail arena eg. Aust......still the case!!!!!!!

To me this says that the Major Manufacturers manipulate all aspects of pricing, in itself no great revalation, its the complicity of our governments that gripes me most, as is our collective stupidity, apathy by nurturing, continuing to accept, elect and pay the low grade folks that stand up to enter a career as our representatives. Who having been elected have a vested interest in maintaning things exactly as they are.

Me buying a gray market "L" lens is not gong to bring either Australia, or Canon to its knees, and if the lens is defective in any way or needs fixing, at worst I did'nt save as much as I had hoped.

 

[Paul Verizzo]

Here in the USA, pricing structures and controls for most hard goods are almost non-existent, especially compared to when I grew up, post WWII. The origins of said controls go back to FDR and the New Deal, although I'm not sure what the rationale was.

Everything used to have a "List" price, then various discounts based on your position in the economic hierarchy. Auto and other parts is a great example. If you weren't in business yourself, you paid List. Pricing pages in the back of the parts books would have multiple columns, from List to what the merchant paid for it. You give us a lot of business? Your price is in a column farther to the right.

My father had a boat business, so everything was bought under the name of Shore Marine. In fact, retail consumers where only grudgingly served, the other options being the local garage or Sears or Wards for consumables.

With the deregulations that Carter started and Reagan made a core point, the List price joined the dinosaurs and let rise, for instance, consumer type auto parts stores. Ironically, those stores are now competing against the old line NAPA type stores for the business of professional mechanics.

Back to gray markets. They exist because of pricing differentials geographically. Those pricing differentials can be a combination of taxes (think cigarettes and electronics) or manufacturer/distribution decisions. I used to bring boxes of disposable batteries when I'd drive into Mexico and give them to friends. For whatever reason, AA, C, and D cells cost a lot more there than here. Yet other things, vice versa.

 

[Smile]

To get my Pro 1 fixed I had to prove where I had bought the printer first by providing them with the invoice before they would touch it, the darn thing was not even under warrantee, also I’d have no problems buying grey market and to hell with their warrantee..

In my country you must do it yourself, or have a stash of money. I choose the DIY way, because the servicemen are way more stupid than average DIY user on this forum.

 

[Łukasz]

I choose the DIY way, because the servicemen are way more stupid than average DIY user on this forum.

Ł.