Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/05/19
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]<< I'll bet that with a group this size, with the purchasing power it appears to have and the Leicaolism many of the members clearly have, something could be worked out. >> I can think of three possible approaches 1) dealing directly with Leica 2) Establishing a contract with a dealer; 3) establishing a LUG cooperative 1) The chances of Leica dealing directly with a group such as the LUG and bypassing its dealers is pretty remote. 2) As far as getting an extra established from a dealer, I doubt that one could get better pricing than an individual can already get. Note that the advertised prices are not the true lowest selling prices. I routinely get substantial discounts off of the advertised prices. For example I recently purchased a 74 1.4 (new German version) for $2,132 including two day UPS shipping. The adversised price is about $2,500. Dealers already deal down to the smallest possible margins. Competion sees to this. The issue is what benefit a dealer would obtain by slicing its margin for the LUG. Individual negotiations already accomplish that. The LUG cannot offer a promise that its members will purchase from a certain dealer. Any dealer who wishes to give the LUG members a good deal can do that now without any further agreement. 3) The other possibility is that the LUG would establish a cooperative and would purchase and distribte the goods from its members, collecting the payments, etc.... This would be expensive. Someone would have a lot of work to do --- double handling of hundereds or thousands of peices of equipment a year. This would require a facility and staff. Who would pay for this. Who would have the legal liability? Who would pay for it. Who would run it? Tom Shea