Huge price difference, GB vs US (1 Viewer)

Just looking around on EBAY a bit at binocular pricing...

A NIB SLC 8X56 shows $2159 shipped for a SONA model. I can MAYBE buy it for around $1959 shipped. Right now there is a NIB same model and priced at $1565 shipped from GB. IMO that's a pretty big price difference. Is SONA service worth $400 that you'll probably never use?

Chuck,
It is the weak pound that causes differences.
Usually goods were way cheaper in the U.S. compared to the U.K.
For many items this is still probably true.

When we devalued in Harold Wilson's tenure I negotiated a special U.K. price for certain goods, as we would not have sold them otherwise.
I had to agree not to export them.

Personally, I would pay the $1,900 for U.S. stock rather than a grey import at $1,500. But it depends on the item.

Regards,
B.

I've used Swaro USA service twice on the same Swaro 10x50 SV. As a matter of fact it is there as we speak. When I attempted to unscrew the eyepiece from the right barrel, the whole barrel turned! Swaro's service is top shelf and will fix it free of charge, but Swaro's aren't bulletproof by any means. They are not near as stout as a Meopta IMO.

Chuck,

That would depend if you were to keep the glass indefinitely, if so, I would buy local.

Andy W.

dries1 said:

Chuck,

That would depend if you were to keep the glass indefinitely, if so, I would buy local.

Andy W.

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I'm with Andy on this one Chuck.

Lee

Hi,

there might also be duties and tax to be paid when importing stuff from abroad - at least it would be that way if you tried to import a US pair into the EU. Actually if you buy stuff from large mail order stores in EU as a non-EU citizen, you might get shown a price without tax - unlike EU citizens who get shown the price they pay including 20% or so in tax... which might be another reason why it's so cheap.

Joachim

Ive been looking at this phenomenon for quite some time. I reached out to the Ebay dealer with said GBP prices and they indeed confirmed the weak exchange rate. I may try this out for a pair of Habichts (10x40 - ~800 USD).

Samolot said:

Ive been looking at this phenomenon for quite some time. I reached out to the Ebay dealer with said GBP prices and they indeed confirmed the weak exchange rate. I may try this out for a pair of Habichts (10x40 - ~800 USD).

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I bought a pair of new 10x40 W Habichts for $800.00 shipped from Cameracentreuk on Ebay which is a UK seller without a bit of problems and received them in 5 days and I bought a pair of new 8x30 W Habicht's from Bushwear which is also a UK seller on Ebay but I offered him less and ended up purchasing them directly at a discount for $750.00 shipped but with no problem at all and again received them in 4 days. Both pair are perfect and new and no problem registering them for warranty with Swarovski. You don't have to worry about having problems with Habicht's. Every pair is perfect unlike some of the MIJ and MIC binoculars. I absolutely love the Habicht's. They are the super porro everybody talks about. They have EL glass and updated EL coatings with 96% transmission and will nock your socks off with the view. I think I like them better than my Swarovski SV's and I have four of the SV's. I also bought a pair of EDG 10x32's off of Ebay from a seller in Japan called Lushnine for $1100.00. I received them in about 8 days and they seemed new but the focuser had backlash and as I said in the thread on them they were less bright than my other alpha's so I returned them to Japan. The seller paid the return shipping which was $55.00 and I thought everything was cool and then when he received them he tried to deduct $550.00 from my refund for the binoculars being used! I only had them out of the box a couple of times! I contacted Ebay and within 30 minutes had my FULL refund. So I would not worry at all about buying from the UK but be careful in buying from Japan especially EDG's. There are no duties or tax either from Japan or the UK.There is NO way I would pay the full retail of $1100.00 for Habicht's when you can get them from the UK for $700.00 to $800.00 all day.