Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1998/07/04
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]This whole debate reminds me of Ferrari's sentiments that speculators who were only interested in buying the cars for financial reasons rather than a love of the cars themselves. When they began selling the F50 supercar, a limited edition roadgoing racecar, they took several steps to check the pedigree of prospective owners to make sure that only people willing to drop half a million dollars were only interested in a Ferrari for Ferrari's sake. They also had some strange purchase program where the car could only be bought in a lease-to-own program, rather than bought outright. Meanwhile, as reported in Sports Car International in the current issue, the price of the car has tanked by 50% with cars still available. Anybody who buys a Leica new is good for both the company and Leica users. While I purchase used equipment for financial reasons, I realize that these purchases, which while they indirectly support Leica products by creating a secondary demand to comfort new equipment buyers, have no contribution to Leica's current bottom line, which is what is needed if the much dreamed-about M7 and R9 are to have a shot at appearing.