With second hand kit - does it matter where it was bought?

For second hand does it matter what country it was bought from?

  • Yes

    Votes: 7 23.3%

  • No

    Votes: 23 76.7%
  • Total voters
    30
  • Poll closed .
Mike.P said:
Interestingly I have sold a couple of lenses to MBP lately and they have started asking from where the item was purchased. I'm guessing that has something to do with import tax/VAT. One was from Ebay and they even asked for the sellers username.
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My thought is that they are also possibly concerned about handling stolen goods and want to have an ownership trail
 
mortimerhill said:
My thought is that they are also possibly concerned about handling stolen goods and want to have an ownership trail
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Except there have been reports that they have refused to buy goods even with a receipt when it has been grey import.
 
The whole grey import argument is completely pointless. All camera equipment is manufactured outside the uk therefore all imported. As far as someone selling something that they paid less for than someone in the uk for at the same price also holds no weight as the market price is the market price for secondhand goods. Do you ask your local shop how much they paid for the goods they are selling you? No.
 
Muzzieman said:
The whole grey import argument is completely pointless. All camera equipment is manufactured outside the uk therefore all imported. As far as someone selling something that they paid less for than someone in the uk for at the same price also holds no weight as the market price is the market price for secondhand goods. Do you ask your local shop how much they paid for the goods they are selling you? No.
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That isn't the point, have you read all the posts in the thread?

There are other issues beyond price that can make buying grey a problem

If you can buy a mint 6 month old legit Euro/UK Canikon for £200 or a mint 6 month old HK Canikon for £200, which would you choose?
 
Yes I have read all the posts in the thread. Also I have recently purchased a 5d mk iii and 17-40 from hdew for £100 more than the body alone at uk retail. On top of that uk vat was paid and I have a three year guarantee. As far as the argument that repairs couldn't be made to something because its not an official uk purchase, that is utter nonsense. Are you telling me that if I was on assignment overseas and something broke I would have to send it back to the country I purchased it in?
 
Dave1 said:
That isn't the point, have you read all the posts in the thread?

There are other issues beyond price that can make buying grey a problem

If you can buy a mint 6 month old legit Euro/UK Canikon for £200 or a mint 6 month old HK Canikon for £200, which would you choose?
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Again that is an irrelevant argument as neither would be under warranty. They are both identical products from the same factory. If one were cheaper then that's a different matter.
 
Muzzieman said:
Again that is an irrelevant argument as neither would be under warranty. They are both identical products from the same factory. If one were cheaper then that's a different matter.
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At 6 months old it could well still be under warranty, some UK warranties are transferable or valid on production of the original receipt.

You may well think it's nonsense that a UK distributor will refuse to work on a grey import, but there have been a number of reports of this happening (sigma and Tamron, for example) and Nikon have just updated their warranty pages to say the same.

Nikon European offices cannot provide any technical support or warranty servicefor Grey Market product, additionally they may not perform any fee-based repair work on Grey Market products.
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MPB have also refused to buy second hand grey items in the past.

My point would be the grey item would need to be significantly cheaper to warrant the additional risk of future problems.
 
MPB appear to ask for a receipt and if you don't have one then they won't buy it. Doesn't make any difference if it was sourced in the UK or is grey market. They obviously have their own reasons for this that I'm not going to attempt to guess at.

I'm sure I read that Sigma had refused to repair a grey market lens, but how can the UK distributors determine whether the lens is grey or not ? Do they have a process to check the serial number and determine where it was sold ?
 
Dave1 said:
At 6 months old it could well still be under warranty, some UK warranties are transferable or valid on production of the original receipt.

You may well think it's nonsense that a UK distributor will refuse to work on a grey import, but there have been a number of reports of this happening (sigma and Tamron, for example) and Nikon have just updated their warranty pages to say the same.



MPB have also refused to buy second hand grey items in the past.

My point would be the grey item would need to be significantly cheaper to warrant the additional risk of future problems.
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My point being there are plenty of places that will repair equipment. It doesn't have to go back to the manufacturer. In my case of my recent purchase my 5d was £400 cheaper than standard uk retail. We are being ripped off big time in the uk. We live in a global society why not get the cheapest deal possible. Lenses in particular do not just break, if looked after they will last for years. If mpb won't buy sell on eBay etc. I could go on but won't.
 
stu.artd said:
Do they have a process to check the serial number and determine where it was sold ?
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I know for a fact they do and they also warned me once about buying from Amazon - Sigma are very strict about what they will cover for free - still not an issue if you're not the original owner.
 
JohnN said:
I know for a fact they do and they also warned me once about buying from Amazon - Sigma are very strict about what they will cover for free - still not an issue if you're not the original owner.
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Thanks, was something I'd wondered about. With the cashback on the Sigma 150-500 Amazon have a notice on their page stating to make sure it's sold by and fulfilled by Amazon for the cashback to be valid.
If they're refusing to do paid work on grey market kit though it does become a potemtial problem if you buy 2nd hand.
 
Unless they have changed policy they will repair or at the very least service imported lenses - my previous 150-500 OS was an import and they happily took my cash to calibrate it - although this was back in mid 2012.

I just found this bit from an old email after I'd asked them if it would have been free had I bought from Jessops - but like I say this was quite a while back.
If you have the purchase receipt from a Sigma UK retailer we would do the calibration under the warranty. If it is out of the warranty period but you still have the original purchase receipt from a Sigma UK retailer then there is just a £5 charge to cover the return p&p.
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lol, they're not that bad and their service really is good.
 
stu.artd said:
I'm sure I read that Sigma had refused to repair a grey market lens, but how can the UK distributors determine whether the lens is grey or not ? Do they have a process to check the serial number and determine where it was sold ?
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Yes they do plus they always ask for the receipt when carrying out warranty work which will show if VAT has been paid.
Saying that they repaired a non EU/UK lens for me a while back and were happy to take my money (even though I told them it was grey).
 
Mike.P said:
Interestingly I have sold a couple of lenses to MBP lately and they have started asking from where the item was purchased. I'm guessing that has something to do with import tax/VAT. One was from Ebay and they even asked for the sellers username.
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I asked a dealer trading on ebay about a camera he was selling, I tried to find out the history of the camera. I was told it was non of my business where he sourced his goods from !
 
jonbeeza said:
I asked a dealer trading on ebay about a camera he was selling, I tried to find out the history of the camera. I was told it was non of my business where he sourced his goods from !
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...and I bet you rushed to buy that from them :D
 
Muzzieman said:
We are being ripped off big time in the uk. We live in a global society why not get the cheapest deal possible.
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If you want to believe drivel like this, that's your right, but please don't insult the rest of us.

The UK market for camera equipment is as competitive as any in the world, despite the fact that shop staff in the UK benefit from things like minimum wages, sick pay and paid holidays which aren't necessarily available to shop staff in other countries. The reason things cost more here is purely down to the level of UK VAT compared with sales tax elsewhere. You might think that's a rip off, but you might want to reconsider it next time you see your doctor without having to pay for the consultation.
 
As far as Nikon is concerned I once had a problem registering a new imported lens to NPS (Nikon Professional Services).

They politely said that in case of problems they will do their best to help me, but the grey imports won't be taken into the account when considering eligibility for membership and premium support won't apply to that gear.

They register second hand gear as soon as they are sold through the standard channels.

Nikon grey imports are easy to identify. UK stock should have start with 8xxxxxx. There are some exceptions (like certain pro bodies) though.
 
StewartR said:
If you want to believe drivel like this, that's your right, but please don't insult the rest of us.

The UK market for camera equipment is as competitive as any in the world, despite the fact that shop staff in the UK benefit from things like minimum wages, sick pay and paid holidays which aren't necessarily available to shop staff in other countries. The reason things cost more here is purely down to the level of UK VAT compared with sales tax elsewhere. You might think that's a rip off, but you might want to reconsider it next time you see your doctor without having to pay for the consultation.
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Yes its so competitive i can get a flight to see a friend of mine in HK buy a camera stay a week and still have change from the cost of buying in the UK, my recent purchase was £400 cheaper than canon rrp sourced in the UK all taxes, wages etc paid. drivel indeed
 
If you were interested in shooting video you would probably want to know where the camera came from as different countries have different video specifications, I think the USA would be 30/60 fps, while the Uk is 25/50, also i believe UK equipment often has a recording time limit, while other countries do not
 
mpe said:
As far as Nikon is concerned I once had a problem registering a new imported lens to NPS (Nikon Professional Services).

They politely said that in case of problems they will do their best to help me, but the grey imports won't be taken into the account when considering eligibility for membership and premium support won't apply to that gear.

They register second hand gear as soon as they are sold through the standard channels.

Nikon grey imports are easy to identify. UK stock should have start with 8xxxxxx. There are some exceptions (like certain pro bodies) though.
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Interestingly, My D800e (new import) was registered with them with no issues at all..... hopefully thats the exception......lol
 
Diving Pete said:
Interestingly, My D800e (new import) was registered with them with no issues at all..... hopefully thats the exception......lol
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If it's like Canon, you can register anything. You an check by just making up a serial and starting a registration, the Canon system was happy with a Canon 70D serial 33333333333 and 9999999999.

It's only when their is human intervention at warranty required time that they could ask questions about non EU serials or ask for a PoP.
 
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