Buying a lens from Dubai

Glen

Glen

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Glen
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Does anyone have any experience of buying equipment from Dubai?

I have a friend going there for a week on wednesday, and wanted to know if it would be cheaper to get things over there.

He's looking at buying a Canon 35mm L series.

Thanks for any advice.

Glen.
 
Buying from the Middle East Gulf states is a lot cheaper than buying here ... for some items!

If you're worried about things like warrantee, then stick with top name brands (avoid 3rd party products like Sigma, Tamron, etc.) and you will be fine.

You should do an Excel table for each item you want to get running down the rows, and the various methods of purchase running down the columns. In the colums I list grey importers, special importers (like Kerso), buying while abroad, buying online in UK, and buying from local store in UK.

When you buy from a foriegn country, ensure to add the factor of variable currency exchange.

As I am from Saudi Arabia, I can get a lot of items from over there at a HUGE price variance than from anywhere else in the world. This is especially if the item in point has been in store for a while, they would do huge discounts to get rid of it (case example, the Nikon 80-400 VR goes for under £500 NEW in Saudi ... I thought the salesman was joking, D2Xs back in 2005 was offered for well under £1,800 NEW, and the list goes on).

Just make sure you know which items to buy and stay away from 3rd party lenses / accessories (simply because of they have poorer build quality, which may mean you need to send it in for a small service .. this may make the £££ savings no longer worth the while).

Finally, how will the items be brought into UK? There is a cap as to how much goods an individul can bring into UK for him / herself and / or as a gift. As such, you may still have to pay VAT upon entry! You will have to sort this out yourself!
 
I used to live there, and recently bought a Sigma lens.
Its a good lens as well, and im fussy! To be certain I got a decent one, I looked around, and tested them out.

Pretty much all camera and lens brands are more expensive, although only slightely. There are some odd deals though, and its always good to check it out.

Sigma on the other hand, I found to be cheaper than Hong Kong Prices, and I was very impressed! You don't get a 3 year guarantee, but a 2 year international one instead.
Check out Grand Stores, they have about 10 stores in UAE, most of them in Dubai
 
Adam Rowney said:
.....

Pretty much all camera and lens brands are more expensive, although only slightely. There are some odd deals though, and its always good to check it out.

....
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Are you saying that they are more expensive in Dubai than here in UK? If so, that's very odd ... prices in Dubai are very close to what they are in Saudi Arabia (GCC policies govern a lot over there) .. and for the past 3 ~ 4 years I have consistantly done price comparisons between shops over there vs. Hong Kong mail order vs. UK shops vs. UK mail order vs. US mail order and found ...

In order of cheapest
US mail order
Middle East (Gulf countries)
Hong Kong mail order
UK mail order
UK stores

There are instances where the Middle East prices may be similar to those in UK, but this would be for newly released, or hard to find, items.

That, also, as indicated .. most shops in Middle East will give you an International Warranttee which is an added bonus.
 
Thanks for the info Wail. I may be purchasing from Dubai next week:D
 
Adam Rowney said:
Sigma on the other hand, I found to be cheaper than Hong Kong Prices, and I was very impressed! You don't get a 3 year guarantee, but a 2 year international one instead.
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Sigma "International" warranties aren't actually worth anything, if you read the small print they are only valid in the country that the lens was purchased in, so one bought in Dubai wouldn't be honoured in the UK, unless you have paid the vat/import duty....
 
So in other words, what you are asking is, "D'you buy"? :D :LOL:
 
For some items it may well be worth it to pay the VAT upon arrival, just to get the comfort and security.

Examples of items I've bought in Saudi vs. rough prices in UK

Nikon 80-400VR £480 vs. £980
Nikon PK13 Extention Tube £30 vs. £80
Nikon 50mm f1.8 £43 vs. £75
Nikon D200 £533 vs. £800
Tokina 17-55 f2.5 £200 vs. ???
Sigma 10-20 £173 vs. £350
Nikon Angle Viewer for D200 £40 vs. £175

These items are for prices back in Aug. 2007 ... as you can see these are a lot cheaper than buying in UK, even if I wanted to pay the VAT I'd still be saving £££. Of course, I've had to use a rough currency exchange rate to get the £ equivelant.

That said, there were a few items, such as the 70-200VR and a few other items that were priced the same in Saudi as it was here in UK. I know if I wanted to go for these items then I would have been able to get 5% discount (or thereabouts), but not so much to merit me having to buy from .... a 5% discount may amount to a nice lump of £££, but I don't think it's worth the hassle.
 
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Oh, and the two Sigmas that I bought, the 70-200 HSM and the 10-20 both had focusing issues that needed service .. which I had to pay for when here!

This is why I initially said, go for the brand names (Nikon, Canon, Pentax, etc.) .. stay away from the Sigmas, Tamron, Tokina
 
I was in Dubai in March and I was in shopping mood. Unfortunately I didn't think the prices I was seeing for Canon lenses were particularly good, once I'd factored in the import duty (6.9%) and VAT. Some Sigma lenses, on the other hand, were quite reasonably priced. For example I picked up a 120-300mm f/2.8 for ~£1,000, which was ~£1,250 by the time I'd got through Heathrow - but the best UK retail price at the time was around £1,600.
 
Stewart,

I just saw your signature and it cracked me up .... you list three lenses as your Gear, when you have 10s of the world's best lenses under your nose :LOL::LOL::LOL:
 
Janice said:
So in other words, what you are asking is, "D'you buy"? :D :LOL:
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Nice one Janice :D

Thanks for the replies, he's gonna check out the prices when he gets there and will see what he can find.

I told him to bin the boxes and bring it back in his bag as if he already had purchased the lens over here.

Cheers (y)
 
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Hi Glenn,

I spend quite a bit of time in Abu Dhabi ,and visit Dubai too. Back in March I was looking at getting a 40D. Having looked around as much as I could, I found that the price in England was £499 (£599 - £100 cash back at the time) compared to 5000 dhs in Dubai (£750 at Jumbo Electronics). I checked out all the major retail outlets and was surprised to find the products there at a similar price to the UK if not dearer.

I bought a sigma lens from Abu Dhabi as I was able to get a good discount, so paid £200 for a 20-70 F2.8 which was a good price, but the lens has front focusing issues. Fortunately I'm able to get it back there to have it looked into, but despite this it proved a long drawn out process. Unless you can find something on sale, I generally found electronics to be more expensive than in the UK. Even on sale sometimes it's still cheaper in the UK.

Another example was the price of CF cards. For a sandisk extreme III 4gb you'll pay £16.99 here. The manager of the shop said that's cheaper than he buys them for his own stock.

Prices in the UAE have risen alot because of the huge increases in rents, upward of 300% in some cases, so the prices of goods has gone up as well. Where as you could haggle a few years ago; now the prices are set and no one is willing to budge on price. If you've been a regular buyer for years at a shop and are on good terms, sometimes things are different and you'll get a discount.

I haven't tried sourcing electronic items from the souk in Dubai, and am not sure if they'll have DSLRs or lenses, so I can't say what the prices there will be like.

Look on www.camerapricebuster.co.uk to get an idea of the price of the lens here and compare it to buying overseas. Unless you're making a significant saving, I wouldn't get a lens or any electronic equipment in the UAE, unless of course you could test it before you bought it. You'll have no-end of hassles if it happens to have calibaration issues or something else wrong. If you want the cheapest, you're probably better off sourcing from ebay, hong kong. I'd look into Kerso, who, from what I've read, is a good seller and offers a UK warranty.

In my short experience with this kind of kit, unless I'm able to test a lens/body I won't buy it overseas because a faulty lens will be a bugger to sort out, esp since the consumer laws there aren't very consumer friendly; it's just not worth the hassle unless you live there.

The Saudi prices seem very good, but I can assure you that the UAE is a different matter at least Dubai and Abu Dhabi. as I can't speak for Sharja or the other emirates. Forget about Bahrain too, they were always expensive.

Chris
 
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Wail said:
Are you saying that they are more expensive in Dubai than here in UK? If so, that's very odd ... prices in Dubai are very close to what they are in Saudi Arabia (GCC policies govern a lot over there) .. and for the past 3 ~ 4 years I have consistantly done price comparisons between shops over there vs. Hong Kong mail order vs. UK shops vs. UK mail order vs. US mail order and found ...

In order of cheapest
US mail order
Middle East (Gulf countries)
Hong Kong mail order
UK mail order
UK stores

There are instances where the Middle East prices may be similar to those in UK, but this would be for newly released, or hard to find, items.

That, also, as indicated .. most shops in Middle East will give you an International Warranttee which is an added bonus.
Click to expand...

The lens I checked from Al Salem, Grand Stores and Jumbo were pretty on par with England prices, and camera bodies were more than England prices. Sigma were the only bargain's there.

As for how good the warranty is, I do not know, but for the price, it doesn't bother me, especially as I can go back to Dubai often. I would be interested to see if Sigma UK would take my lens though.
 
Adam,

Interesting that both you and chemosabi are finding things in Dubai as expensive as here in UK.

This may be so, particularly for Dubai since, as indicated by chemosabi, the rent there is getting out of control. Still, I do believe that prices in Dubai would be very close to Saudi since there is import duties of 5% only to add to the cost of getting the stuff from manufacturers ... no VAT.

That said, the cost of living, and business operation cost in that part of the world is a lot cheaper than it is here, which means lesser overheads and hence cheaper prices.

As for the Saudi prices, they are very good .. so much so that I thought of staring up my little import business ;) ... but seriously, if you are heading that part of the world, especially into Saudi drop by Abdulwahed electronic store and haggle for prices. True, they offer me very special prices as I've been their customer for over 30 years .. but still, even the off-the-shelves prices are a lot cheaper (in most cases) compared to that in UK. Sadly, their website doesn't seem to be working ... I've badly wanted to souce some items from them recently.

All that aside, the suggestion to go with Kerso is probably the best if you want good prices and a UK invoice which will give you the warranttee and cashback on offer. He's very good to do business with, I've bought through him and have been very happy with his response and speed of delivery.
 
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