Canon EOS20D dig camera for £450.What's the catch?

BaritoneUK

Hi. I am looking for a Canon Eos 20 D. Normally this costs £1200-£1300.  I saw a US site doing it for $829 which roughly gets you to £450.  Obviously this does not include shipping which is probably a lot- but this is so cheap- what is the catch?  I assume I would have to pay tax and duty.  How does that work?  Are these guys for real or should I avoid the site?

The site is called Royal Camera and the camera is on their site at - http://store.yahoo.com/royalcamera/caeos2082mes.html

I'd be grateful for any thoughts...

mr_fishey

its only the camera body .lens sold separately

BaritoneUK

Yes but the body only costs £1269.90 at Jessops at the moment. That is a big difference almost a 1/3 of the price!
The Jessops site is on http://www.jessops.com/search/viewproduct.cfm?PRODUCT=CANEOS20D

The lens doesn't really cost that much on top.

Rave

How does store.yahoo.com work? Do Yahoo process the payments?

TBH it looks like it could be a scam, the English on the 'about' page has a few gramatical errors that remind me of 419 emails. If you pay with a credit card that guarantees you for purchases abroad I guess you can't go too far wrong.

Bear in mind you're likely to get stung for approx. 25% VAT + import duty, plus whatever fee the courier charges to administer that (typically another 5-10%).

Rich :¬)

Edit: thay have a non-yahoo store too:

http://www.royalcamera.com/digitalcameras-canon.html

I must say that if it is a scam someone has gone to a lot of effort to get all the prices consistently cheap....

BaritoneUK

I don't know how Yahoo store works.

Where do you get the 25% VAT figure from? I am not sure how it works when buying abroad. Is there a link to some information that helps me with this?

Rave

This is why they're cheap. They're apparently not an actual scam company, but they'll do anything possible to upsell you to all sorts of overpriced tat:

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1895.html

If you know what you want- fine, if not, beware. Still, the price for the Canon L-Series lenses they advertise got me dreaming for a moment.... ::)

As for import duty, IIRC it's about 8% on electronics like cameras etc., but you can check on the customs and excise website. Then you add 17.5% VAT. However, you have to pay the courier company a charge for getting the package through customs, and typically that's a percentage too. Check that with the courier company.

Rich :¬)

mr_fishey

http://www.hmce.gov.uk/channelsPortalWebApp/downloadFile?contentID=HMCE_PROD_009989

If you open this file it shows you the amount of tax you will have to pay,it looks like you are still getting a bargain. lets us know if you decide to buy and how you get on

Paul

BaritoneUK

This is why they're cheap. They're apparently not an actual scam company, but they'll do anything possible to upsell you to all sorts of overpriced tat:

http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1895.html

If you know what you want- fine, if not, beware. Still, the price for the Canon L-Series lenses they advertise got me dreaming for a moment.... ::)


Rich :¬)

Many thanks for that info, Rich. Reading the reseller ratings it makes me a little to frightened to go for them. It is mega cheap, but sometimes the hassle you can go through can make it actually expensive. I think I'll give this one a miss!

totallyrandom

Royal Cameras

See http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1019&message=11256486

Some businesses are known as bait and hook sellers. Who advertise goods at a knock down price but when you order them they call you back and say its not available unless you buy the extras such as the charger, installation disks, manuals etc. These are the things that should be included in the package. They will also insist on selling overpriced lenses etc if you want the product anytime this decade.

Be aware!

Meeten

I bought this camera (with the lens) when I was otu in the States earlier last year (Oct).
I have to say that it is a BRILLIANT piece of kit.

Unfortunately it was for my brother, and I had to give it to him on my return to Blighty.

HOWEVER, since then, I have been thinking of treating myself to one of these. If anyone does have the courage to go through and order from this site, can you please let me know how you get one. This gives me time to get het purchase OK'ed with 'she who must be obeyed'!

Thanks

Rave

Many thanks for that info, Rich. Reading the reseller ratings it makes me a little to frightened to go for them. It is mega cheap, but sometimes the hassle you can go through can make it actually expensive. I think I'll give this one a miss!

Well.....Martin's point in starting MSE as far as I can tell was to enable consumers to screw the big companies back. If someone has decided to start a business using bait and hook tactics to screw consumers, then why not take advantage of that? Order using a credit card, just keep saying 'no...no...no...no' when they try to upsell you, buy 3rd party peripherals like battery + charger cheap in this country, and you're laughing. I used to work in Jessops, and unless Canon have drastically changed the battery + charger arrangement for the 20D vs. the D60/10D, you can pick up clone battery + aftermarket charger for about £50.

Rich :¬)