Has Ian Kerso (Flash Camera) ceased trading?

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Hi All,

I have bought a lot of my Canon gear off Ian at Flash Camera over the years with great prices and service every time. So naturally I went back to his website this week to look for my next purchase.

Whilst the website is still there, it has no Canon items listed. I went to his eBay shop and again, no items listed and the last feedback being a few weeks old.

Has Ian gone out of business?
 
He has also gone from the traders section on here too I noticed the other day . I don't know how long he's been gone from here . I've also bought from Ian in the past with no problems .
 
I hope not, I am after a Canon MP-E 65mm now!

Hopefully he will read these posts and respond, I have mailed him through his web site :)
 
It's quite possible he is away on holiday. If so, he usually takes items down off his website until he returns.

Does he still have a thread on here? If so, he normally posts a message about holidays


Sent from my iPhone using Talk Photography Forums
 
Mmm! was wondering the same myself, had a browse last night looking for a particular item but nothing for sale on the site.
 
I contacted him a month ago as I was after a Canon 70D and there was nothing on his website.

He said he was changing supplier as he is going VAT registered. And he wouldn'd be able to supply for a few weeks.

I gave it a few weeks and saw his website was showing products again but out of stock.

Emailed again and he didn't reply so I bought one from elsewhere.

I have had a few cameras and lenses from Ian over the years but I wonder how competitive he will be when he gets up and running again.
 
bigrob said:
I contacted him a month ago as I was after a Canon 70D and there was nothing on his website.

He said he was changing supplier as he is going VAT registered. And he wouldn'd be able to supply for a few weeks.

I gave it a few weeks and saw his website was showing products again but out of stock.

Emailed again and he didn't reply so I bought one from elsewhere.

I have had a few cameras and lenses from Ian over the years but I wonder how competitive he will be when he gets up and running again.
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Interesting comment about Kerso getting registered for VAT, especially in the light of this thread and Kerso's final post in reply to StewartR... ;)

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/threads/discussing-ilegal-activities.502521/page-2#post-5783066
 
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It certainly doesn't mean Ian was operating illegally as was questioned before.

It maybe that due to tax loopholes Ian could import and sell at great prices. Loopholes are down to The Chancellor to close.

It may be that loopholes have now been closed, that Ian has come to their attention or that he has now passed the VAT threshold and hence he now registers for it.

I was happy to purchase from him and would do so again in the future. However as mentioned earlier I suspect that prices may not be as competitive as before.
 
bigrob said:
It certainly doesn't mean Ian was operating illegally as was questioned before.

It maybe that due to tax loopholes Ian could import and sell at great prices. Loopholes are down to The Chancellor to close.

It may be that loopholes have now been closed, that Ian has come to their attention or that he has now passed the VAT threshold and hence he now registers for it.

I was happy to purchase from him and would do so again in the future. However as mentioned earlier I suspect that prices may not be as competitive as before.
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I didn't mean to imply that Kerso has been trading illegally, and in fact I'd be amazed if he was. I too have purchased from Kerso before, and used to recommend him on here.

But the question of VAT being paid, or not, has often been cited as a reason why his prices were so good, and he has repeatedly dodged the question. I asked him about it myself as my invoice did not show any VAT payment (or VAT registration number) and he replied that 'no taxes were payable' which is not the same thing.

If a VAT loophole has been closed, then it's not before time. Much as I like cheaper prices, dodging VAT makes it impossible for retailers that do pay VAT to compete, and photo dealers are having a hard enough time as it is. Most grey importers continue to flout the law, quite openly, and being a cynical type I have half an idea that those grey importers who 'provide a VAT receipt on request' may not be paying VAT on everything as a matter of course and it's all a bit of smoke and mirrors. It's hard to see how otherwise they can offer such low prices.
 
I had a look at his site on either Wednesday or Thursday night and Canon cameras and lenses WERE listed. So, as above, I suspect that he may well be on holiday and will be back up and running in the next week or so. His prices hadn't seemed to increase much, if at all, since earlier in the year.
 
Nothing there now.

Stuff appeared then disappeared.

So it's a mystery.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. Sadly then, it appears Ian may have ceased trading :-(
 
That's a real shame. Whatever about the merits of his tax structuring (whatever it was), I always found him reliable to deal with and the equipment exactly as described.

A cursory glance at eBay will confirm far larger traders based on feedback alone who have also clearly not registered for VAT / corporation tax, so not exactly a level playing field.
 
HoppyUK said:
I didn't mean to imply that Kerso has been trading illegally, and in fact I'd be amazed if he was. I too have purchased from Kerso before, and used to recommend him on here.

But the question of VAT being paid, or not, has often been cited as a reason why his prices were so good, and he has repeatedly dodged the question. I asked him about it myself as my invoice did not show any VAT payment (or VAT registration number) and he replied that 'no taxes were payable' which is not the same thing.

If a VAT loophole has been closed, then it's not before time. Much as I like cheaper prices, dodging VAT makes it impossible for retailers that do pay VAT to compete, and photo dealers are having a hard enough time as it is. Most grey importers continue to flout the law, quite openly, and being a cynical type I have half an idea that those grey importers who 'provide a VAT receipt on request' may not be paying VAT on everything as a matter of course and it's all a bit of smoke and mirrors. It's hard to see how otherwise they can offer such low prices.
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As above.
Of course, not being VAT registered (for whatever reason) is an advantage when selling to non VAT registered customers, but some of us ARE VAT registered and dealing with someone who isn't is actually more expensive for us.

I only bought a copy of Lightroom from Ian, I just kind of assumed that he was VAT registered and thought that his price, including VAT, was good. But once I'd received it and found that there was no VAT to reclaim I found that it would have been cheaper elsewhere, from a VAT registered dealer.
 
I have kept out of the who pays what tax to whom, my reason for starting this thread was simply to find out what if anything had become of Flash Camera and Ian Kerso. Due to the lack of anything on their website and nothing listed on ebay for a few weeks i have now sourced my purchase elsewhere. However, it is worth mentioning that the Flash Camera site is now showing stock again, so hopefully Ian is back in business irrespective of any tax issues.

Edit: By "Flash Camera" I mean their website!
 
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iPhoto said:
I have kept out of the who pays what tax to whom, my reason for starting this thread was simply to find out what if anything had become of Flash Camera and Ian Kerso. Due to the lack of anything on their website and nothing listed on ebay for a few weeks i have now sourced my purchase elsewhere. However, it is worth mentioning that the Flash Camera site is now showing stock again, so hopefully Ian is back in business irrespective of any tax issues.
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Really ? I've just been to Flash Camera on Ebay and it still has zero listings...
 
Yes it is up and running, so I guess that he is back up and running.

I was after a 70D whilst he was going through his 'reconfig' and went elsewhere.

Most of the items are out of stock, so it may be a case that, things will change as he gets stock in.

I would have bought a 70D from him as I would have been able to use the Canon £100 cash-back, but had to go to Fleabay in the end.

However it does look like he is getting it up and running again.
 
Some of Flash Camera's prices aren't quite as keen as they were before the outage though...
 
Paul-H said:
Are we talking about http://www.flashcamera.co.uk

If yes they are back up and running, some prices are good Lumix 100-300 under £400 some not so good, Olympus 40-150 well over the £119 that PCWorld are asking.

If its the wrong site anyone got the link to the correct one.

Paul
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Have you checked their stock for the lens you quote ( Lumix 100-300)?
 
Yes - I picked up a lens from his sister some years ago.
 
TBH no one really knows why he has stopped trading.
 
Just out of curiosity, the price difference between other countries and UK is it purely the 20% vat? Or as well as the vat do we can charged more as well?
 
Michael D Beckwith said:
Just out of curiosity, the price difference between other countries and UK is it purely the 20% vat? Or as well as the vat do we can charged more as well?
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Ooh, that's a can of worms, and it's a bit off topic, but what the heck.

Most countries have some sort of sales tax comparable to our VAT, but it's not always included in advertised prices. So if you go into B&H in New York the price you'll be charged is something like 9% more than the price on the ticket.

Import duties can vary from one country to another, but aren't a big factor in UK prices, especially since the duty on most cameras is zero. (On most lenses it's 6.9%.)

Retailers' costs are probably higher in the UK than most non-European countries. Property is expensive and we have various employment laws (minimum wage, paid holidays, maternity leave, sick pay, etc) which arguably add to costs. Plus our general tax base is higher than most non-European countries, so that affects retailers' costs too.

But conversely we have one of the most competitive and efficient markets here. On big ticket items like cameras and lenses, most retailers make very thin margins (though see below). This means that ex-tax prices for these items in the UK are generally no higher than in other countries.

(There is a bizarre anomaly though when it comes to newly released products. It's as if there's a "must have it at any price" market here which doesn't exist in other countries, and UK retailers are happy to let those buyers pay inflated prices. For example a new product might launch at £1000 here and $1000 in the US; 6 months later it will still be $1000 there but it will have dropped to £600 here.)

Hope this helps.
 
StewartR said:
There is a bizarre anomaly though when it comes to newly released products. It's as if there's a "must have it at any price" market here which doesn't exist in other countries, and UK retailers are happy to let those buyers pay inflated prices. For example a new product might launch at £1000 here and $1000 in the US; 6 months later it will still be $1000 there but it will have dropped to £600 here.
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I believe that's why manufacturers call the UK 'treasure island'.
 
Llamaman said:
I believe that's why manufacturers call the UK 'treasure island'.
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I don't think so. The amount the manufacturers charge isn't the issue here, and as far as I can tell that's pretty much the same worldwide.
 
Back on topic I think it's one of 2 things.

Either something happened here that he hasn't got anyone to send the gear out e.g. a death

or when the tax man caught up with him it became uneconomical.
 
bigrob said:
... or when the tax man caught up with him it became uneconomical.
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Surely you aren't suggesting that his business might not have been entirely above board?
 
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I would suggest that Ian might, in the words of Alan Clark (RIP) have been "economical with the actualité" of his tax affairs.

For those too young to know who Alan Clark was - like provided.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Clark
 
You guys are bang out of order here!
 
When I was looking for a 70D 3 months ago, I emailed Ian as his website was showing no stock.

Ian emailed to say he wouldn't be able to supply for a little while as he was changing supplier due to him having to now to be VAT registered.

A week or so later everyting disappeared from his website. Items appeared a little while later showing no stock.

Finally the message came up about due to family circumstances.

We know Ian shipped stuff from the states and his mum or sister then posted it.

I then draw my own conclusions, that it was either a death in the family or it became uneconomical.

I do think it became harder and harder for him once people like Panamoz started to get a good reputation.
 
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