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why all M8's being shipped to US?


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Hi all,

 

my professional camera supplier told me that the US is recieving most M8's and that European countries are getting to share very few.

here in Sweden there seems to be a 3 month wait for a M8!!!

 

why is this?

is it really true?

am I better off buying one in the US and bringing it here to Sweden?

how will that affect the guarantee?

 

alexander

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Hi all,

 

my professional camera supplier told me that the US is recieving most M8's and that European countries are getting to share very few.

here in Sweden there seems to be a 3 month wait for a M8!!!

 

why is this?

is it really true?

am I better off buying one in the US and bringing it here to Sweden?

how will that affect the guarantee?

 

alexander

 

Don't know about all of them coming to the US but B&H has black M8's in stock right now.

So come on over and buy one.

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Alexander--

One possibility is that the dealer may not be ordering intelligently.

 

Generally, Leica processes orders in the order in which received.

 

If a dealer ordered 400 cameras in January, he will get a few each time cameras become available for shipment.

 

If another dealer ordered one at the end of March, the dealers with earlier and larger orders will get precedence simply because the date of their back-order is older.

 

In other words, the dealer who doesn't order a camera until he already has a customer for it may be annoyed that other dealers are getting quantity shipments.

 

I can't say that is the case here, but I have always found that the dealers who ordered cameras before they had to would get them pretty regularly, and that the dealers who waited for a commitment would experience delays.

 

Speaking here only of items that are not yet immediately available, of course.

 

--HC

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thanks for all your input. I contacted Leica Camera Berlin since they are fellow europeans and maybe we can work around the VAT/sales tax issue.

 

thanks!

 

alexander

 

 

Alexander, try Leica Camera Berlin. They had two in stock the last time I looked:

 

Leica Berlin: Home

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Weak US dollar means Leica make more profit selling cameras to US buyers. If the dollar strengthens, European M8 supplies will likely pick up.

 

That ought to be the other way around. Week $ brings in less Euros to Leica.

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Selling cameras and lenses brings income. That's true whether the products go to Greece or Guatemala, Sweden or Singapore. Leica doesn't decide whom to ship next by looking at exchange rates.

 

I doubt seriously that the US is getting an inordinate share of M8s, but remember that the US and Canada constitute a large geographic area, possibly with a larger number of dealers than there are in all Europe.

 

If a dealer in Sweden usually sells ten Leicas a year and a dealer in Frankfurt usually sells a hundred, the Frankfurt dealer is simply keeping more cameras on order because he knows he can sell them.

 

The complaint "Why is he getting cameras and I'm not?" is universal. A dealer in Texas wants to know why dealers in Illinois get M8s and he doesn't; a dealer in Oklahoma wants to know why dealers in Texas are getting more cameras than he.

 

The reason is simply that the other dealer ordered more and earlier.

 

--HC

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Hi all,

 

my professional camera supplier told me that the US is recieving most M8's and that European countries are getting to share very few.

here in Sweden there seems to be a 3 month wait for a M8!!!

 

why is this?

is it really true?

am I better off buying one in the US and bringing it here to Sweden?

how will that affect the guarantee?

 

alexander

 

How many customers have the US and how many Sweden ? So if Sweden gets 3 per month you get may be the same quantity as Berlin. And thats fair...isnt it ?

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Yesterday I have received the following e-mail from LeicaBeiMeister

 

 

 

 

2_header1.gif

24. April 2007

 

2_trennlinie1.gif

Dear Leica Friends,

the LEICA M8 - update 1.102 is now available. Together with all updates before and the improvement of the serial production, I am very satisfied with todays quality of the M8.

I am also very happy to be aible to deliver black or silver chrome LEICA M8 upon request for immediate delivery. ORDER NOW YOUR LEICA M8.

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Hi all,

 

my professional camera supplier told me that the US is recieving most M8's and that European countries are getting to share very few.

here in Sweden there seems to be a 3 month wait for a M8!!!

 

why is this?

is it really true?

am I better off buying one in the US and bringing it here to Sweden?

how will that affect the guarantee?

 

alexander

 

If you really wanted an M8 you would have one. They are not hard to find. Schiphol airport always has one, and had a few chrome ones yesterday. Quit complaining, or as they say in the US, either s--- or get off the pot.

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If you really wanted an M8 you would have one. They are not hard to find. Schiphol airport always has one, and had a few chrome ones yesterday. Quit complaining, or as they say in the US, either s--- or get off the pot.

 

Chet, not everyone want to buy internationally. Sometimes people like to support a local dealer, plus It's an expensive item and there's a comfort factor in knowing that you can go to someone local if anything goes wrong.

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Hi Alexander,

 

I can understand your frustrations. There are only 3 M8's in South Africa at this stage. I had to wait four and a half months for mine. One can however not be cross with Leica Camera AG. If they would ship 10 of them down here, chances are that they would sit here quite sometime before they would be sold. When it comes down to the nuts and bolts of things, Leica needs to sell camera's in order to stay in business. The US has the largest potential market - population numbers with the spending power taken into consideration.

 

Since these camera's are hand assembled, Leica's production numbers are limited. So, I suppose it does make sense to send them to the market with the greatest demand. Only thing that I can't really understand is that Europe is also a huge potential market.

 

On another topic, my M8 has backfocusing issues. If I were to send it back to Leica here in South Africa, they would send it to Solms for repair - thus leaving me without this camera for months. So, I am learning to live with it and take this backfocus into consideration. I must admit though, it really takes some getting used to, to take a photo when the image is not in perfect focus. I'll just have to wait until the next time I get to Germany and take it into Solms for adjustment personally. I just don't trust myself with the "hex" fix.

 

Andreas

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Chet, not everyone want to buy internationally. Sometimes people like to support a local dealer, plus It's an expensive item and there's a comfort factor in knowing that you can go to someone local if anything goes wrong.

 

You are certainly correct. I am only trying to point out they are not all 'shipped to the US', as we all know. They just received 8 here in Warsaw at the local dealer. If the dealer in Sweden can't seem to get one, then one needs to move on. I certainly would not wait for months to get something I wanted just because I couldn't support a local dealer.

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