jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

I guess they don't know who they're emailing. Abe's of Maine sent me an email about their great sales.

Looking at their ad for a D750 ($1,149), there no mention of it not being a regular import. They offer various warranties, but an unsuspecting shopper would probably jump at the price. It's too bad there isn't a law requiring advertisers to give details about the origins of their products.

TheShoe Loc: Lacey, WA

That is what you get for being such a good customer

Bipod

Or a law prohibiting manufactuers from fixing the prices that retailers charge.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes! Competition! Of course, that would hurt the local store trying to compete with the big guys.

Bipod

For the most part, the local store is already out of business.

We saw the same thing with PC stores. The problem is that retailers have to be "value-added resellers":
they have to add knowledge, repair service, etc.. Unfortunately, most were "value-subtracted resellers":
they opened the computer box, "borrowed" the power cord and lost the manual. Then big box stores like
Fry's Electronics (about as nice as Walmart) came along and drove smaller stores out of business:
same bad service, lower price.

Camera manufacturers didn't help by making cameras difficult and expensive to repair.
Electronics has to modular to be repairable. If the modules are too big, they cost too
much and if the camera is not in warranty, it's not worth repairing.

Over the years, I saw the person standing behind the counter in camera stores go from about
age 50 to about age 17 (and part-time). That's when I started buying everything on-line.

But that seems to be declining as well: B&H is more and more pro video and less and less
still camera. You can't even buy a full-size lens test chart there for less than $1000.

Being in business used to be about two things: making a profit and having pride in your
work. Now it's about one thing.