Why so cheap?

KREEDMAN

KREEDMAN

Active member
Hi guys,

I was wondering, why does B&H sell the HVX200 for much more than what you see on ebay? Some offers are $4000+/- with P2 cards....

Is ebay a good source to buy the HVX200 from?

thanks!
 
B&H is a Panasonic retailer. They sell at MSRP. Those Ebay sellers most likely are not. The cameras could have come from anywhere and could have any sort of history, taken off the shelves for whatever reason or sold at discount and obtained cheaper. Doesn't always reflect poorly on the product. Also, those people are competing with some guy selling his used, which means they get driven down to general street price easier; B&H is in a different market, as a reputable retailer.
 
why does B&H sell the HVX200 for much more than what you see on ebay
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are you serious? is this a real question? its because B&H is a big established AUTHORIZED retailer. they have a HUGE retail store and traditional overhead. and there are costs associated with that. and those costs are reflected in their prices

many of the ebay sellers are simply individuals, have no physical store, sell grey-market gear or at worst are criminal, bait and switch artists.

now thats not to say that there arent a TON of reputable deals on ebay. there are and there are tons of reputable individuals there (people like us) who are selling their used gear.

so just use your brain on ebay, ask the right questions and always remember, any deal that sounds TOO good to be true - usually IS.
 
KREEDMAN said:
I kinda new all of the above. Perhaps I should have asked, what do you think of this offer?

http://cgi.ebay.com/Panasonic-AG-HVX205A-AG-HVX200-Camcordr-16GB-P2-KIT_W0QQitemZ230328690595QQcmdZViewItemQQptZCamcorders_Professional_Video_Cameras?hash=item230328690595&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66:2|65:15|39:1|240:1308

Thanks guys, Great points.
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No. Buy from an authorized dealer. Don't buy from some crack house dealer just to save a buck or two. Or, look into buying a used camera from someone on the forum. The marketplace is loaded with used HVX's.
 
I'm guessing thats the Japanese version of the 200a (the 205a) which means no warranty repair in North America unless it is done through a third party. Now they claim to have a 1 year warranty, though it is not Panasonic's warranty (Since its a gray market camera) so it comes down to trusting this ebayer to be good for the warranty.

As far as the added on items, everything is junk except for perhaps the softbag/aluminum case.

The real issue with sellers like these is costumer service side of the coin. When you purchase from a Panasonic authorized reseller they have direct access to Panasonic in case anything happens/changes with your camera. I highly doubt you'd be able to send in an ebay'ed HVX200 with the beeping issue to get fixed. Or how would you deal with the loose lens mount that some early HMC150s had?

Now obviously I am a biased source in this matter, but considering most of my day is spent educating and troubleshooting costumers, I find that its a big reason to go with reputable dealers such as B&H, Spec-Comm, AbleCine, and ourselves.
 
anything below B/H prices is not to be trusted. You arent going to cheat the system only yourself. Buy from a reputable dealer.
 
There are plenty of lightly used cameras available from people. I've bought a huge bit of my equipment on Ebay, but never from a place like that. Their pages look too much like spam and scam sites. I'd definitely be concerned, especially when they throw in crap extras like a QVC salesperson. But they do have a high seller score with positive feedback, so apparently it hasn't been an issue before.

Personally, I'd rather have a price I can afford without the name of a reputable dealer than the benefits of using one for something I can't get. Price matters.
 
There are a few (hungry) reputable dealers who sometimes put equipment on Ebay. I bought mine from Studio Exchange in CA (authorized Panny dealer) on Ebay over 2 years ago and got all the US extras and warranty. Probably 9 out of 10 cameras on Ebay who are not being sold by individuals are shady though. The accessories are always near useless.
 
FWIW, after about a kazillion people posted this same question, I did a little homework and found out what most of us have said a kazillion times.

I called on a couple of these "great deals". I found a lot of verbal claims that these people would never give in writing. After digging deeper I always found it was either a grey market camera or this price was only available if you paid extra for all sorts of things you don't need. Or yes, even one dealer said the lens was extra! WTF??? You can't take the HVX lense off but it would cost more to get one with the lens.

So as always, if the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. For that once in a million times it really is that good....think about how painful it will be for those 999,999 times you get screwed. :(
Best of luck though.
 
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