About to Buy HVX, Advice Needed

kgb

kgb

Active member
Hey everyone, I'm sure that this questions pops up all the time.

I've just saved up enough money to buy the HVX-200, finally. I am on a budget of 6500. I was planning on buying the HVX for about 5500 from AbelCinetech or B&H. But the fact that it is out of stock at B&H and price at Abel have kinda put me off. I've already seen that all the Brooklyn-based online vendors are not trustworthy... infinitiphoto.com, prestigecamera.com, all with the same 718 areacode. Total scam.

But I found a site called bluestripephoto.com out of Edison, NJ that has gotten positive reviews on resellerratings.com and they have a BBB reliability program stamp on their site. The price there is 5000 with free shipping. The $500+ I save would enable me to buy another 4GB P2 card.

Any opinions on this? Any reasonable alternatives?
 
If something looks, smells, tastes, walks, and talks like a duck, it very might well be a duck.

Try it if you want, but I sure wouldn't.

For authorized resellers, try Specialized Communications, ProMedia in Tennessee, Roscor in Detroit, Lerro in Philly, EVS in CA, Armatos in NY, Abel Cine in NY and LA, Birns & Sawyer in LA, FullCompass (Minnesota I think?) There are lots of genuine authorized resellers that will offer legitimate deals instead of pie-in-the-sky bogus deals that are padded with horribly overpriced accessories.
 
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I got a great deal from Specialized Communications. Free shipping and free 600mAh battery, and 2% off the whole order if you pay with a certified/cashier's check.
Wherever you buy, just make sure it's an authorized dealer. You can check on Panasonic's site whether a store is authorized or not.
 
Can Scanner said:
I got a great deal from Specialized Communications. Free shipping and free 600mAh battery, and 2% off the whole order if you pay with a certified/cashier's check.
Wherever you buy, just make sure it's an authorized dealer. You can check on Panasonic's site whether a store is authorized or not.
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Specialized has a pretty good deal...after the 2% check payment, it's about $5300 bucks. I don't want to incur massive taxes by ordering from a local California reseller. I'll call Specialized tomorrow to see if they have them in stock. Thanks guys.

By the way, Can...how long did it take you to receive your camera? Were you able to add any kind of warranty on top of the manufacturer's warranty?
 
Yeah...the little truck beside their "Free Shipping!" notice makes me think that most of their stock fell out of the back of one, for some reason.
 
If spec comm has a good deal get it. One of their guys is always on this forum, never a bad report mentioned. Your probably going to wait around 2 weeks if they are out of stock. But what else are you going to get for the money..... seriously just be a little patient and go reputation and AUTHORISED over anything else.

Doesnt AbelCine have a DVXUser discount?
 
ncje said:
If spec comm has a good deal get it. One of their guys is always on this forum, never a bad report mentioned. Your probably going to wait around 2 weeks if they are out of stock. But what else are you going to get for the money..... seriously just be a little patient and go reputation and AUTHORISED over anything else.

Doesnt AbelCine have a DVXUser discount?
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A "discount" from AbelCine would end up costing me a lot more in CA tax since I'm in L.A.
 
We are authorized dealers in Dallas Texas... we have cameras and 8GB cards in stock!

no sales tax for out of state purchases.. and no sales tax for Texas purchases under the State of Texas Filmmakers Tax Exemption!
 
kgb said:
A "discount" from AbelCine would end up costing me a lot more in CA tax since I'm in L.A.
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Not so much, really. CA has a tax reduction for production equipment, so sales tax would be about 3% if you fill out the form. 3% on $5000 is only $150, which would about equate to express shipping from another state, yet you get it immediately instead of having to wait a day.

In other words, it's a factor but it's not necessarily as big a factor as you may think.
 
what a coincidence i found this thread...i just got off the phone with this company in NY that is selling the HVX for $3,500 at http://www.ccicameracity.com/panasonicaghvx200.html

is it considered a scam if they are not an authorized dealer?

by any chance did anyone manage to get their HVX less than $5k? I finally have the money but have just been looking for the right bargain.
 
Dude!

Just look around, check some other posts about the price on the HVX.

BTW, yes, they're not authorized and YES, it's a scam.
 
I always use B&H. If you look hard enough you can usually find a legit deal
for a little cheaper then B&H, but not much cheaper.
 
FilmBoy77 said:
is it considered a scam if they are not an authorized dealer?
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No, it is considered a scam if you're being scammed by filthy lying deceptive scammers.

Which brings me to: did you perhaps happen to look them up on resellerratings.com?

by any chance did anyone manage to get their HVX less than $5k? I finally have the money but have just been looking for the right bargain.
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Nobody has ever bought an HVX for less than $5000 that I've ever heard of. The lowest it's ever been is $5100 as a show floor special at NAB by Samy's; other than that $5300 is about the lowest anyone sells it for.

Sooner or later someone will chime in and say "nuh-uh, I got mine for just $4200 from brooklynscamshopphoto!" And we'll have to ask "did you buy JUST the camera, or did you get other stuff with it?" and we'll hear about "oh, I got a great wide-angle lens, it's normally $1800 but they sold it to me for just $1200, and I got a 9-year extended warranty for just $800, and I got a box of tapes for only $250, and a really killer set of Crystal Optics filters for less than $300!"

In other words, they bought fifty bucks worth of cheap ebay junk accessories and a worthless warranty, which drove their "great deal" $4200 camera to $6750 or something (plus inflated shipping charges).

So you can get scammed, or you can buy legit. Just realize that legit is going to mean $5300 or more.
 
I think it would be good to have a sticky explaning what the grey market is and the possibility of scams from the Brooklyn crowd et al. and then tell an interested party who wants to but an HVX to put the word "authorized" in the search engine.

I do think I guy named Scrappy was able to negotiate an HVX from an authorized dealer to below 5k, at least he said he did.
 
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