Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/12/12
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]<< In a message dated 97-12-11 20:56:38 EST, Stan Reinike writes: << Do you know about how much tax I will have to pay for a new M6 ordered from outside the US and shipped back? >> ======================================================= I have here on my desk, an UK catalog from "Jessop Photographica" in which there is a statement "Equipment prices include VAT - for ex- port out of the UK deduct 15%. Since the UK & German prices are usually higher than the US, I see no reason to buy from there. Japan is a different situation all together. There seems to be a group that is buying from Leica, at factory prices (not wholesale but factory cost). They are unethically skipping the cost mark-up of the distributor and therefore can sell for less than wholsale. Sooner or later they will be caught by Solms & the practice will stop. American dealers that buy direct from Leica USA pay about $1500 for a new M6, without any warranties, and then can offer their own, if it is so desired @ ($100/1 yr or $300/3rs). My advice would be to avoid the so called "grey market" and if you can't afford to pay the "complete service" Leica price, don't buy it, as service (as bad as it sometimes appears) is an inherent part of the Leica mystique. This is only my opinion, and from what I hear from Don Chatterton, it is really nothing to worry about since Leica problems like the M6 plastic gear breaking have been corrected & only very few LUGgers have had bad results with their equipment. I think that some LUGger did count the results of Fernando's poll & found something like 10, (of those that responded), leaving the assumption that the balance of us were happy. Marvin Moss