Best Buy ? Best Scam!

[gldiana]

You know, every once in a while I like to go to a Best Buy store or their website to look at photographic equipment and laugh at their prices.
This is the new one, you're going to love it:

Canon 1Ds Mark III $11999.99 body only
That's $3000 more than the MSRP.

Canon 5D $2999.99 ON SALE (Yeah Right)
$1995 on Amazon.com, Calumet Photo, etc.

Such a joke...
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=8794762&type=product&id=1205537713788

[Robin]

Wow, Luca, that is, indeed, a JOKE! I s'pose the draw is that they will finance you for a hundred years if you have decent credit.

Silly people, Trix are for kids.

[gldiana]

I s'pose the draw is that they will finance you for a hundred years if you have decent credit

Yeah, at 24% interest. Funny thing, they increased my limit to $8700, they can keep their credit.

I don't really classify a 1Ds Mk III as impulse buying. Pro-photographers know camera prices very well, Best Buy managers are only trying to fool themselves. I'd be very curious to see how many they sell.

[Walczak Photo]

I don't really classify a 1Ds Mk III as impulse buying. Pro-photographers know camera prices very well, Best Buy managers are only trying to fool themselves. I'd be very curious to see how many they sell.

The one thing I would point out here since I just had this debate on another forum is that not everyone who would be interested in buying a 1Ds Mk III is a "pro photographer". Unfortunately in this country the sad, sad truth of the matter is that there are people who are able to squirt money out their butts on a whim and will go out and blow that kind of money on something like a Mk III without even having a real need or use for it. They buy it because either it's the most expensive camera they could find -or- they were dumb enough to let the sales person sucker them. Many of them really wouldn't know the difference between a Mk III and a Rebel XT as far as quality goes. They simply bought the camera to wear it as a "fashion statement"...just another way to show off how much money they have.

In addition to this there are also folks out there who are just ignorant enough to believe sales people too (and again often they have credit lines bigger than the cost of my house). I've met people who honestly seem to think those zit faced kits working for minimum wage at Best Buy are actually "photography experts"! LOL!!! Don't even get me started on "real" photography stores (the few that are left)...I wouldn't trust a sales person at one of those stores as far as I could throw them! But you get a person who doesn't know any better or is "afraid to do business on the internet" (like my parents) and they'll soak up everything those sales people say like a dry sponge.

I would even add one more thing to this...there are "pros" out there that will tell people that this is the kind of camera they should buy. I think I had mentioned this in a thread a long time ago...I was at a Photography Club meeting last year and the speaker was going on and on about how you "had to have the latest camera and software and you should never even buy a book that's more than a year old...foot locker full of L glass", etc., etc.. Now there were these two old ladies sitting in the back row and I just knew that all they really wanted was a simple digital p&s so they could take some snaps of their grandkids at Christmas and such to send to relatives, etc.. Honestly these ladies probably would have been quite happy with a camera phone! By the time this a@@hold was thru however these poor old ladies were convinced they need to spend at least $20,000 in equipment just to take a picture.

I do agree with you in that yes, I think most "pros" do know better and usually know the value of their gear, but again not everyone who buys a camera is a pro. Best Buy probably sells a lot more of those Mk III's than you'd expect.

Just my $.02 worth,
Jim

[gldiana]

I was at a Photography Club meeting last year and the speaker was going on and on about how you "had to have the latest camera and software

It seems that, according to those people, cameras have not been around over 100 years and photos have never been sold until this super mega hyper cameras came out few months ago.
I would have asked the guy "So, you're saying that all the photos you took before you bought this camera are trash?"

Trust me, I would have, I'm that kind of guy

[bob_r]

I bought my camera at Best Buy. Of course, they were offering it at the same price that it was going for on the internet when I bought it. I had to pay taxes but not shipping, so it wasn't much difference. I paid cash for it too, so I was soaked with their interest rates.

The main reason I bought from them, is their fantastic price matching guarantee :

"BestBuy.com Price Matching/Price Guarantee

If you've made a BestBuy.com purchase and discover a lower price offered on our Web site or at a Best Buy store on the same available brand and model, let us know and we'll match that price on the spot, tax included.

Exclusions:
The BestBuy.com Price Guarantee does not apply to competitors' offers; third-party offers; online auction sites; shipping charges; clearance, Outlet Center and open-box items (when price matching with a Best Buy store); special offers or promotions such as mail-in incentives, gift-with-purchase and financing offers; services such as installation; or typographical errors. Best Buy stores in Puerto Rico have their own price match policy."

What a joke!

Bob R

[Bonish Photo]

I was at Calumet in San Diego to check on a used Mark II they had (TOO MUCH) and while I was waiting in line for the saleperson to finish with the couple in front of me, I noticed what they were buying.

A new MarkIII, two 16 gig cards, a 16-35L Lens and a few other things I was drooling over. When I said something about how nice the equipment was, the woman smiled and said "I love to take pictures of the grandkids and my husband wants me to have the best camera available!"

I about died right there. The husband who was behind her was trying to tell her she needed the 70-200L f/2.8 lens to go along with it, and she snapped back, "OH honey, I have that big lens already and I dont even use it, it's too heavy for me to carry around with my 30D"

Like Jim said, "Some people have money squirting out of their butts and dont know what to do with it"

Here I am trying to ppurchase a camera to make a living off of, and this couple is buying 100x what they need to take a picture of little Johnny to hang on the fridge.

Just had to vent a little