Just purchased a Nikon 16-35 from a place in France for £665 and as it was delivered less than 24 hours later I assume it came from their uk warehouse but the uk price is £175 more expensive. The single market is not working out in our favour in this instance.
Lens prices in the uk
- Thread starter peter
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Soldato
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Depends where you ordered from surely? Is it a grey import?
Quite the opposite, as Kreee says, because f the single market you are free to buy your camera lenses anywhere in the EU and not pay import taxes and duty.
That has always been the case though. Companies set prices based on what they think the market will pay, nothing else.
For a quick comparison: GDP per capita is $44,118 in the UK and $37,728 in France. If all else is equal (taxes, living c0sts) then the average Brit has 17% more cash, and a £665 lens is France is vaguely similar to £780 in the UK as a measure of expendable income. But that is only a small part of the equation, perhaps British People are just as liekly to buy the lens for £170 than the French, in which case the company has set ideal pricing.
I you don't like it then you have 2 options:
1) Buy a cheaper lens, in theory companies will realize the sales differences and prices will adjust to maximize profit which would mean lower sales price in the UK. This only works if a majority of people feel the same.
2) Take full advantage of the EU single market and buy the lens from France/Germany etc. without worry over additional taxes.
Really, at the end of the day the British market is known for accepting higher prices for products. The same is true for anything from cars to TVs.
When I was a kid we would get a channel ferry to France every summer and go camping for 2-3 weeks, we would always book the ferry form a french website because the french prices were cheaper, e.g P&O with french language options was cheaper than English language version. Nothing illegal about that at all.
My Subaru Forester cost about 1/3rd of the price of the UK equivalent model (I'm in the US). The funny thing is I could get a second hand Forester a few years old cheaper in the UK than the US, because int he US cars depreciate way less because they are far cheaper new.
Even within a country there can be big price differences. There have been cases where companies would distributed special offers only to select regions of the country, or the offers would vary by region, and in fact some companies would print their sales brochure with items at different list price so if you lived in Manhatten you would get prices quoted 20% higher. than the mid-west. Same has been shown for online purchases, e.g. if you connect via a mac or Ipad then the company hikes up prices. All of this has been taken to court but thrown out because it is perfectly legal to set prices differently for different people as long as you don't discriminate on race/gender etc.
Just last year I was booking a flight but the prices jumped up $200 over the coup[le of day looking. I got annoyed and called my wife, she doubled checked form her office and got the original price we had found earlier in the week. I cleared all my cache but was stuck at the higher price so called back the wife to book. They had obviously logged IPs and had fixed the price.
Gets worse if you look at ocuk owned by caseking in germany. Same item from caseking is £200 cheaper delivered from Germany compared with ordering from ocuk. No good reason as to why either.
Thank god we have a free market or we would be ripped off in the uk.........
This does raise an interesting question about imports - does importing from another EU country count as a grey import.
Regardless of the duty/tax situation, the item has still been purchased outside the manufacturer's UK distribution channel so surely they'd still class it as grey.
If warranties are European rather than UK only then there's no real issue but I can image you might have problems claiming cashback on such a lens, for example.
Genuinely intrigued by this as, when people refer to grey imports, they're usually talking about sources outside Europe such as HK.
Regardless of the duty/tax situation, the item has still been purchased outside the manufacturer's UK distribution channel so surely they'd still class it as grey.
If warranties are European rather than UK only then there's no real issue but I can image you might have problems claiming cashback on such a lens, for example.
Genuinely intrigued by this as, when people refer to grey imports, they're usually talking about sources outside Europe such as HK.
Obviously just like there are uk sites which import grey items from outside the eu there are retailers in the eu which do the same. But possible to find legit authorised retailers in euro per selling eu products and get the savings listed by the op. We just are seen as a market in the uk where we are prepared to pay a higher price than the rest of euro per including Germany. I quite often find camera gear and lenses and miles cheaper from Germany. You would think the Germans had a higher average income or disposable income than us.
Soldato
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Curiua?
