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Leica Price Increase


zeitraffer

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Actually, many of the lenses are severely back-ordered already. Almost as much as the M9. At least in the US. 50 f/1.4, f/2 and 0.95, 21/24 luxes, 35 'luxes, 135 APO. Check B&H's pages. "Temporarily unavailable" "Available for pre-order" "Out of Stock".

 

Although one can argue cause and effect: Are they so back-ordered because people heard about the price increase a month ago and bought them all? Or is Leica cashing in on heavy lens demand already generated by the M9 intro? Place your bets...

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Actually, many of the lenses are severely back-ordered already. Almost as much as the M9. At least in the US. 50 f/1.4, f/2 and 0.95, 21/24 luxes, 35 'luxes, 135 APO. Check B&H's pages. "Temporarily unavailable" "Available for pre-order" "Out of Stock".

 

Although one can argue cause and effect: Are they so back-ordered because people heard about the price increase a month ago and bought them all? Or is Leica cashing in on heavy lens demand already generated by the M9 intro? Place your bets...

 

Andy,

 

Actually, except for the 50 Lux and Noctilux, we have all the lenses you mentioned currently in stock. :)

 

The reality is that the 50 Lux and Noctilux have been on back-order long before there was even rumors of an M9. Of course, now that so many new people are discovering Leica, there is a growing shortage of both new and used lenses. We saw this happen when the M8 came out in late 2006, but to a lesser extent. The M9 seems to have hit all the right notes for many photographers.

 

The primary reason for the price increase is the weak performance of the US Dollar vs. the Euro.

 

David

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...Although one can argue cause and effect: Are they so back-ordered because people heard about the price increase a month ago and bought them all? Or is Leica cashing in on heavy lens demand already generated by the M9 intro? Place your bets...

 

Although it appears to be more fun to speculate about big bad Leica taking advantage of all these consumers, it's easy to check if the prices have been increased in Euro terms. I haven't heard that they have. Therefore look to USD weakness for your explanation.

 

Doug

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I'm sure Leica is hedging against a further decline in the dollar at least in part. I have not seen any Euro price predictions either way.

 

I did note today on CNBC that the Euro itself is suddenly stumbling a bit - some are calling Greece the "Lehmann Brothers" of Europe, and apparently a couple of Austrian banks are also in bad shape due to defaults in eastern European countries.

 

If the Euro really does drop fast, Leica may revise/rescind the price increases before 1/1/10. If it drops slowly we may just get rebates back to current prices in 6 months or so. I'm sure David knows the ins and outs of pricing more intimately than I. (And yes, David, I did see you list more stock than the guys on 33rd St.)

 

My local dealer did mention the same lenses that B&H lists as unobtainable as ones they were having a hard time getting. Their last order included only a 35 'cron and a 50 Summarit.

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Guest AgXlove
Let me see, the US dollar was worth about 1.5 Euros in 2008 (and several years before) and it's worth the same now (after a brief strengthening).

 

I'm no economist, but saying that the price increases are due to the dollar vs. euro issue seems suspect. If that were the case, wouldn't the price increases be based on a given percentage rather than a dollar amount?

 

Seems there are other factors afoot...

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  • 2 weeks later...

The weak dollar is part of it. But as every economist knows, when the USA starts raising interest rates the dollar will strengthen. Leica will not reduce prices. They will pocket profits. But when the dollar strengthens, you will be able to buy in england or mainland europe and save a ton. So it has it advantages and disadvantages. Just depends on when you need to buy. Opportunities and risk in any market situation. Right now a lot from europe in are in the USA buying stuff because of the weak dollar. It will reverse when the dollar strengthens and it flows back to europe. Just how much it will strengthen is the bet and why all of us have days jobs and are not making millions on currency swings. :):eek:

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FrankA, I think that the pricing is rather more complex than you suggest. For example outside the company, people don't know whatever payment arrangements/contracts are used between distributors and manufacturer (timing, offsets, operating costs, taxes, currency exchange fluctuations, profit margins, promotions, subsidies, rebates, etc etc).

If it's any consolation, purely on nominal exchange rates, customers in many other countries (including mine, Australia) routinely pay significantly more for Leica gear than US citizens.

 

Your comment about Leica (I guess you mean Leica USA?) buying up in England or Europe in times of a stronger dollar doesn't make sense to me. Suppliers and contracts are fixed a long way in advance and of course the manufacture locations are fixed and limited.

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FrankA, I think that the pricing is rather more complex than you suggest [...]

 

Not to mention the predictability of exchange rates. By the way, you should see the lens price list over here :eek:

 

Regards

Ivo

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FrankA, I think that the pricing is rather more complex than you suggest. For example outside the company, people don't know whatever payment arrangements/contracts are used between distributors and manufacturer (timing, offsets, operating costs, taxes, currency exchange fluctuations, profit margins, promotions, subsidies, rebates, etc etc).

If it's any consolation, purely on nominal exchange rates, customers in many other countries (including mine, Australia) routinely pay significantly more for Leica gear than US citizens.

 

Your comment about Leica (I guess you mean Leica USA?) buying up in England or Europe in times of a stronger dollar doesn't make sense to me. Suppliers and contracts are fixed a long way in advance and of course the manufacture locations are fixed and limited.

 

I am not talking about prices based on supply and demand but about exchange rates. Add pricing into the equation based and supply and demand and the calculus gets really messy. As a for instance. In the past couple of years the dollar was much stronger. There were many threads on this forum where people in the US were buying leica lenses and M8's from Robert White in London (and other European retailers) for less than what they would pay in the US because of the exchange rate. That is what I was referring too. I did it myself on two leica lenses. Had them shipped to me. Robert White got their pounds. I got cheaper lenses than if I went to a US retailer. Same reason a lot of folks from Europe and Asia are over here now on holiday. It is cheap to do because of the exchange rate right now. Local retailers can increase prices but it will harm local customers. That has nothing to do with exchange rates in general. Although hotel room rates in New York in december were as high as I ever seen them. They were reacting to increased demand from overseas. There were not many english speaking folks on 5th avenue when I was strolling. The dollar will strengthen. When and by how much remains to be seen. If it is a lot, I will be back at Robert White picking up what I may need. ;)

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I am not talking about prices based on supply and demand but about exchange rates. Add pricing into the equation based and supply and demand and the calculus gets really messy. As a for instance. In the past couple of years the dollar was much stronger. [...]

 

I believe currencies got mixed up a bit. Here are some rates from the know-it-all internet:

 

.............| USD/EUR. | USD/GBP.| GBP/EUR

30-DEC-2006..| 0.76.... | 0.51....| 1.49

30-JUN-2008..| 0.63.... | 0.50....| 1.26

30-DEC-2009..| 0.70.... | 0.63....| 1.11

 

Apparently, the currency which was really stronger against the € was more the British Pound than the Dollar. Actually, I remember USD/CHF exchanges rates being more or less on par in fall 2006, as they have been now recently.

 

Regards

Ivo

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