Buying a M8 in NYC

[proenca]

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Ok, to ease your purchase I will add some more spices to the seasoning

 

I'm Portuguese by birth, which makes us one of the most legislation twitching, tax evading specialists in the world Until few years ago, Portugal was ( still is ) a small country. High price items were usually priced higher due to the fact that there is a small market for them and usually companies dont honor world wide warranties. Hence the premium that you would pay for a good bought in Portugal over lets say other country was ok because then it means it would come with warranty.

 

The internet and world wide warranties blured very much this but even today, a portuguese is always trying to get the best deal possible - we do like to twist as best as possible that "grey" area of law So.. with the introductions made ...

 

You can actually save quite some money buying the M8 outside europe, specially in US or Asia. I live in the UK and bought my M8 brand new for £1700 in Singapore and even got 5% back of that in cash. God bless Singapore

 

Now how ? First of all, go local and buy local. Be Singapore or US. Take all the plastics, warranty information, boxes, etc. Buy a brown box. Put your M8 boxes, papers, etc ( apart from the charger and proof of purchase ) and ship to your place in germany. Put the warranty information plus proof of purchase on an envelope a and ship to your place in germany.

 

If you are stopped by the german custom's and they ask about your M8, state that the camera was bought in the europe.If they fiddle through your bags and stuff, there will be no evidence that the camera was bought in your trip.

 

Again, as someone said, customs arent looking for M8's or even digital camera : they look more on the tobacco and alcohol side ( because people try to smuggle high quantities for reselling, that's what's they looking for ). Forget about the custom's looking for guns and terrorists, that's america paranoia.

 

Now some key points :

 

ship all the stuff in your last day of holiday, i always ship inside the airport ( usually theres always a post office in the airport, before the check in's ). why ? in the very ULTRA mega rare event that customs stop the mail package and see what you are trying to do, they might inform the aiport. never happened. and I usually send the box and for custom information I put "replacement original box". shipping in your last day of holiday means that in that mega rare event, the things will arrive AFTER you, not before. and again on a cosmic rare event of customs go to you and ask you to pay VAT or import duty, you can simply say "i dont know what that is".

 

reclaiming VAT : ok, this is a simple,. not well known issue : thing is, if you buy inside europe, you can't . europeans have to pay the VAT of the country they buy the goods from. if they dont do so, since europe is a big and happy pan country state, one country tells the other. example :you buy your M8 in UK, reclaim tax back but UK tells big ol deustchland that you reclaim VAT and you are forced to pay DE VAT. Plus german vat is 19%, UK is 17.5%. You can , however, reclaim VAT for non European ( that is US, Singapore, etc ). Again, thing is, throw away the vat papers. Example : I reclaimed my tax back ( you never reclaim the full tax back, it varies with the amount you have spent in the country, each country has it own regulations ) in Singapore for my M8 and other stuff. Then they gave me the money ( still in the airport ) in Singapore dollars and a nice receipt.

Throw away the receipt and change the SGD to british pounds or euros on the airport. That way you custom wont get suspicious why you are carrying 2 high end cameras and say you bought them home but you have a tax receipt and&or have large amount of cash from the country your coming from.

 

Insurance wise, I never had a problem - insurance never asked me anything about buying inside or outside the country. if you really depend on insurance, then take all my advice with a pinch of salt then.

 

And beware of shipping to hotels : things get lost in hotels. Trust me on this one, I work in one. Depending on the hotel you are staying, I wouldn't risk it. Receptionists and door porters ( usually the people who receive the goods ) are amongst the lowest paid jobs in a hotel. and most of the time, camera shops don't like to send stuff to hotels, just because of the amount of claims after that the person didnt receive the goods. some of them refuse straight away.

 

Whatever you do, enjoy your American, German, British or whatever flavour of M8 your going to get. It's a great camera.

[Laki]

Yes, but this is not customs looking for goods, this is a security check, right?

My bag is always screened here aswell, but here they actually are hunting for bombs, knives, guns and Bin Ladin.

 

I'm talking about the Customs after baggage claim where one is supposed to declare or not to declare any goods bought in our example outside the EU. Here I have never been checked.

 

andreas, thats why i said its checked twice, the first check is the security check when checking in and the second when arriving back in germany. and right, at the checkin they look for drugs, bombs and tripods

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[proenca]

andreas, thats why i said its checked twice, the first check is the security check when checking in and the second when arriving back in germany. and right, at the checkin they look for drugs, bombs and tripods

 

 

That's security check , not customs Oh and I have a curious story about them, I'm quite a frequent flyer myself and I try if possible to take always my camera with me. When in my latest holidays, my bag when screened in Indonesia customs. The officer in charge of security called another guy and they ask if I could open my bag. They opened it and just a big wooooooow. I thought "here we go again". But no, they were both photographers and they know Leica. And for them, they were watching a bag with a Leica M8, MP, few rolls of film, couple of ASPH's lens and a few extra bits. They explained themselves, ask 10,000,000 times apologies for that but they said "we had to see, we do like photography you know ? ". So I said : "hey, want to take a picture with it ? take a picture of me and my girlfriend". They both took one picture and I got their addresses - when I got home, I tweaked the raw file and send it back to them. They sent me a xmas card and were thrilled by the episode.

[robsteve]

My insurance company don't work this way. Insurance company politics varies alot between countries.

 

They only ask the questions when you make a claim. It is not a tax specific exclusion, but an exclusion regarding breaking the law. If you smuggle the goods in, they are against the law and the insurance company can exclude them.

[Laki]

 

That's security check , not customs

 

thats why i wrote that i get checked twice, one is security check at the checkin and one when comin back to germany and the second one is no security check i m getting bored repeating myself

[Mauribix]

 

rick

 

Hello Rick, did you receive my PM for the filter?

 

cheers

Maurizio

[bayerische]

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They only ask the questions when you make a claim. It is not a tax specific exclusion, but an exclusion regarding breaking the law. If you smuggle the goods in, they are against the law and the insurance company can exclude them.

 

 

Rob, I have claimed a few things on my insurance. And never ANY questions. Not even a request for a reciept. Funny when you think of it. But I do have all my cars, real estate, business, staff etc insured in the same insurance company. I'm what they call a "Key customer" this might have something to do with it.

 

Insurance companies don't care where the item is bought or if tax is payed. It's just another excuse for them not to pay up when you need them to...

[dfarkas]

I think I saw your shop when I drove trough Hollywood. Do you sell Leica?

 

Yes, we are an authorized Leica dealer. Do you come to South Florida often?

[redfalo]

@ Laki: Well, I did not take 600 flights in the last 5 years, but maybe 60 and I have never ever been checked by the custom people. The only time I had a conversation with one of them was when I arrived in Washington DC with two boxed bicycles for a cross-country-bike trip. They did not bother to open the boxes but were satisfied with an verbal explanation. Maybe you´re a victim of a special selection bias at customs? Do you look like a typical smuggler?

 

@ Goncalo: That´s a great story, indeed!

 

BTW, I´m going to check out my local Leica dealer today...

Yours

Olaf

[bayerische]

Yes, we are an authorized Leica dealer. Do you come to South Florida often?

 

Unfortunately not very often.

 

I visited this autumn, the weather was awful sunshine was definately missing from the "Sunshine state".

 

I'm probably going back to the US this spring, but not to Florida.

[Laki]

@ Laki: Well, I did not take 600 flights in the last 5 years, but maybe 60 and I have never ever been checked by the custom people. The only time I had a conversation with one of them was when I arrived in Washington DC with two boxed bicycles for a cross-country-bike trip. They did not bother to open the boxes but were satisfied with an verbal explanation. Maybe you´re a victim of a special selection bias at customs? Do you look like a typical smuggler?

 

most of the checks coming back to germany occur when coming from asian countries, at least to me. well, maybe i look to much like a smuggler as i said, they dont check everytime but often enough to make me not taking the risk, specially when you spend so much time flying as i do

 

when we used to go on holidays and had bikes with us they were also checked for drugs and explosives, although they never checked them in greece for example, i even had to go over the airfield with one of the luggage guys and help him put them into the plane

[redfalo]

It finally happend this afternoon. I bought an M8. Here in Duesseldorf, at my local dealer and perfectly legal from a taxation point of view. Actually, I even bought two Leicas. One M8 and one III f with a Summitar 50/2; both from 1951 and in rather good shape. My dealer offered me quite a convincing package deal I couldn´t refuse. I always wanted to have a "Schraubleica" and dreamt of a M8 for quite a while, both wishes came true at once.

 

First impression: great camera which you can use instantly when you´re used to analog Ms.

 

Right now I have to get used to Lightroom (any suggestions regarding the best default settings concerning shapness,color saturation ect.?)

 

Here is one of my first M8 pictures, showing the older sister, (M8, Tele-Elmar 4/135 [1966] at ISO 640].

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Thanks a lot for your help again.

Olaf

[phovsho]

Well done! Nice sister to have.

M

[carstenw]

Oh, what a charming camera! I am happy you found the good deal you did. The German dealers I have dealt with have always made good deals for me, even if the price of new items needs to stay high. And it is so nice to walk into a store, knowing that you bought something expensive there and that they really appreciate your business.

[melias]

I purchased an M8 from Calumet in New York in December for just $4,555. That was significantly cheaper than the price offered by other dealers.

[Shootist]

I purchased an M8 from Calumet in New York in December for just $4,555. That was significantly cheaper than the price offered by other dealers.

 

Yes and it was probably a DEMO unit or used in some way.

Good luck with it.

[dspeltz]

Photo Village and B&H are fine. In fact, you really should go to B&H and see the place. It recently expanded (again) and is great toy store. Either stores are fine but sales tax is charged, unless, of course you ship it to New Hampshire and pick it up enroute (maybe ski for a day) which is tax free (yes, we have no sales nor income tax where I live).

 

New York taxes are really high. BTW, if you bring home used gear why would you have to pay VAT (I assume the M8 would have been used).

 

Of course, maybe Tony Rose will ship to your hotel. It is worth a call to him (Popflash). His service is extraordinary.

 

When will you be in NYC? I will be in town once or twice in January.

 

whoops, I see you bought it in Germany. Well, be sure to visit B&H toystore.

 

David

Portsmouth, NH

[rsolomon]

David,

isn't there a dealer right there in Portsmouth NH - lovely town by the way ! im there on biz a few times a year

[melias]

Yes and it was probably a DEMO unit or used in some way.

Good luck with it.

 

Actually, the $4,555 price was an advertised deal during the 2007 PhotoPlus trade show in NY.

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Hallo,

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[xrogers]

I got my M8 from Tamarkin, and recommend them. I also recommend Tony at PopFlash if you choose the California connection.

 

Even if you don't buy at Tamarkin, drop by there and Photo Village (they're pretty close to each other) to see lots of nice Leica gear. And definitely visit B&H just for the fun of it, the best all-around camera store I've ever been in.

 

Have a great trip,

 

--clyde