Heads up folks, Canon lens pricing went up this afternoon.

[40Doodle]

Fred,


I had to stand corrected on the "currency" issue and now believe this is just Canon tinkering with the prices that Dealers are supposed to show for these rebate products. I have not watched the non-rebate lenses because I wasn't interested in buying them. I've mainly watched the 100-400L since before and during the Spring rebate came out. Matter of fact, I just bought one before the prices took their latest $40 post-rebate offering jump and it should be here Wed!


This rebate/pricing thing has been a heated topic on some of the other photography forums as people have compared "Google cached" pricing to the Dealer prices for the various rebate affected products. I have no interest in beating up Dealers on this because I feel that it is a Canon produced situation. From what I can tell (having recently talked about this with one of my favorite Dealers), Canon tells the Dealers what price they want them to observe during these rebate events. The Dealers try to protest when they feel that it will adversely affect customer purchases and sometimes they get around the issue by advertising the price that Canon publicly wants to see, but then offering a lower price when you load the item into the basket or call them to ask for a "special price". I used to see this same kind of stuff in the high-end espresso machine market where Dealers were more or less forced into doing things outside the manufacturer's box to get sales done. I feel that there's plenty of stuff that goes on "behind the curtain" between Dealers and the manufacturer that are not visible to us. Sometimes people interpret it as Dealer greed when it's really being driven/influenced by the manufacturer.


I'm no expert on this stuff, but this is what appears to be going on from my perspective. Some people get mad at the Dealers for not saying (in public forum) what they are doing with pricing during these Canon rebates. From what I can tell, the Dealers are wisely keeping their mouths shut because they walk a line between the customer and Canon and have to be careful with what they say. Thats's my 50-cents worth...


Rick

[Bob]

<span style="font-family: 'Verdana','sans-serif'; color: black; font-size: 6pt;"]


<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]George,<o></o>


<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]You forgot one = Cost Averaging which is easier to do.<o></o>


<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]Most stores do not order lens that often - once every quarter, so to raise prices the week before the rebate is not manage their inventory, just taking advantage of the rebate. Not every retailer is doing this which proves my point - so we can still shop for the best deal, sometimes it is not on the internet. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"]<o></o>


<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; color: black;"]<span style="font-size: small;"]Bob<o></o>