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Gray Market Pentax 8x32 ED Binoculars ? (1 Viewer)

G

gcole

Well-known member
United States
Hi everyone .... I have been thinking about purchasing the Pentax Ed 8x32 but have been waiting for some price relief. While surfing ebay & the web I see Big Value Inc. now has them for 575.87 on ebay & Buy.Com has them for sale for 587.89 for sale. I made a phone call about the Ebay price to Big Value Inc. & the sales rep says that price is for a gray market new if bought thru Ebay & imported. I then placed a call to Buy.Com & found out they come from Big Value Inc. & shipped out of New Jersey within 1 to 2 days of purchase but no real answer about gray market ? In the 70's I purchased a pair of Leica which I found out after the sale that they were gray market from a camera store in N.Y. & never had any problems with the bino's. Gray market or not ? Anyone ever deal with Buy.Com & their low prices thru their suppliers ???? .... Thanks gwen
 
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Gwen,

Never dealt with Buy.Com, but you should be aware that with gray market bins, Pentax might not cover repairs. What you save upfront may later be paid out in repair costs later on.

Probably a good idea to find out what the company's policy is on imports and decide if it's worth taking the risk for the lower price.

<B>
 
gcole said:
Hi everyone .... I have been thinking about purchasing the Pentax Ed 8x32 but have been waiting for some price relief. While surfing ebay & the web I see Big Value Inc. now has them for 575.87 on ebay & Buy.Com has them for sale for 587.89 for sale. I made a phone call about the Ebay price to Big Value Inc. & the sales rep says that price is for a gray market new if bought thru Ebay & imported. I then placed a call to Buy.Com & found out they come from Big Value Inc. & shipped out of New Jersey within 1 to 2 days of purchase but no real answer about gray market ? In the 70's I purchased a pair of Leica which I found out after the sale that they were gray market from a camera store in N.Y. & never had any problems with the bino's. Gray market or not ? Anyone ever deal with Buy.Com & their low prices thru their suppliers ???? .... Thanks gwen
Click to expand...

I wouldn't hesitate to buy gray market from B&H or any other reputable shop if the savings is large enough. But I wouldn't from a less well known shop, especially one that doesn't specialize in the product.

If you're patient enough, you'll find a new one at an attractive price sooner or later.
 
Thanks people for the input, I went ahead an ordered a pair from Buy.Com for $587.79 shipped to N.Y. with no sales tax. & they arrived about 2hrs ago. I will admit I was a little nervous before opening the box, when I did I found what apears to be a new pair just as described with warrany card inclosed. I took them out for a test & everything met my expectations including looking into each barrell, with no dust specs to be seen. Before I register these on line Iam going to try & call Pentax to verify that these will be covered with the USA Pentax warranty. These were bought thru Buy.Com invoiced received from Bigvalueinc.Com which sells both Gray Market & full USA Pentax warranty on their items. I will post back what they say .....gwen ..... I just got off the phone with a sales rep from Pentax & he says the purchase from Buy.Com thru Bigvalueinc. will be covered with the Pentax USA full warranty.
 
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gcole said:
Thanks people for the input, I went ahead an ordered a pair from Buy.Com for $587.79 shipped to N.Y. with no sales tax. & they arrived about 2hrs ago. I will admit I was a little nervous before opening the box, when I did I found what apears to be a new pair just as described with warrany card inclosed. I took them out for a test & everything met my expectations including looking into each barrell, with no dust specs to be seen. Before I register these on line Iam going to try & call Pentax to verify that these will be covered with the USA Pentax warranty. These were bought thru Buy.Com invoiced received from Bigvalueinc.Com which sells both Gray Market & full USA Pentax warranty on their items. I will post back what they say .....gwen ..... I just got off the phone with a sales rep from Pentax & he says the purchase from Buy.Com thru Bigvalueinc. will be covered with the Pentax USA full warranty.
Click to expand...

That's great to hear! I've wanted an ED roof in this price range for quite a while, but I was waiting to hear the reviews of the Monarch 7, and I thought that the Pentax EDs were overpriced, particularly the 8x42 because of its stingy FOV. But this grey market 8x32 ED is priced right, particularly with the warranty intact.

The question then becomes, why pay more for a U.S. Pentax bin?

<B>
 
brocknroller said:
That's great to hear! I've wanted an ED roof in this price range for quite a while, but I was waiting to hear the reviews of the Monarch 7, and I thought that the Pentax EDs were overpriced, particularly the 8x42 because of its stingy FOV. But this grey market 8x32 ED is priced right, particularly with the warranty intact.

The question then becomes, why pay more for a U.S. Pentax bin?

<B>
Click to expand...
I think the bad economy plus the great value of bins being produced in China must be puting pressure on the middle & upper end optics. If one can get this bin below $600. while others are still asking $800 & up , it makes one wonder just how much profit is being made ??
 
gcole said:
I think the bad economy plus the great value of bins being produced in China must be puting pressure on the middle & upper end optics. If one can get this bin below $600. while others are still asking $800 & up , it makes one wonder just how much profit is being made ??
Click to expand...

Particularly with the dollar being low against the yen, a reason why Nikon said it raised prices on its Japanese-made EDG and apparently its SE series.

Even with that value difference, the fact that Pentax can still afford to knock more than $200 off and still have enough left over for both the manufacturer and store to be happy does make you wonder how much of the usual retail price reflects costs and how much is profit.

I'm not a fan of midsized roofs, too small for my hands, and they usually give the impression of shallow depth, particularly if they have fast focusers.

A full sized model would be more to my liking, but not unless Pentax widens the view w/out losing too much edge performance. 6.3* is too narrow for my style of birding, and 50.4* AFOV is too tunnelesque for my taste.

If they pump that up a degree or more and keep the edges good, they might get my money (at the grey market price :)

<B>
 
I've bought grey market watches before and some times the watches (and I suppose binoculars) are ones that are taking up shelf space. The manufacturer doesn't want them sold for less than a certain price so they have to resort to other means to move them. This could be what is happening here. You are getting a U.S. model for a good price because the vendor needs them gone because Pentax is shipping them more binos.

Chad
 
ChadHahn said:
I've bought grey market watches before and some times the watches (and I suppose binoculars) are ones that are taking up shelf space. The manufacturer doesn't want them sold for less than a certain price so they have to resort to other means to move them. This could be what is happening here. You are getting a U.S. model for a good price because the vendor needs them gone because Pentax is shipping them more binos.

Chad
Click to expand...

So then these really aren't "grey market" Pentax bins, more like off-white or eggshell. ;)

<B>
 
"ones that are taking up shelf space."

They could claim them as demos and accomplish the same task w/o the Mickey Spillane Jersey wharf front.
 
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