Re: [Leica] Trying to figure out the way to get better deals!

["Martin V. Howard" <marho@ida.liu.se>]

This idea gets beaten around here every now and then.  Basically, there
are massive problems:


  * Who would organize it?

  * Would the deal include only one country (the USA), or would it
    include those in all other countries too?

  * How would you negotiate the price?  Lower prices if more people
    sign up for this?  Fixed if a minimum number was reached?

  * Would orders be binding?  What if you expressed interest and
    then, because of events outside your control, discover you cannot
    afford the stuff?

  * When would you pay for it?  In advance?  When you get the gear?
    Over time (payment plan)?

  * What about warranties, repairs, faults, errors in orders, etc.?

  * Even if you were to knock a gigantic 20% off the US mail order
    prices for new Leica gear (which by comparison is WAAAAY cheaper
    than a lot of the European countries), it's still stratospherically
    priced for many of us.

  * Even if there are 700 subscribers to the LUG, how many would
    actually be interested in this?  Not all use the latest stuff.
    Not all are planning to make an expensive purchase within the
    next year, even if they might dream of 35 Summilux-ASPHs.  Not
    all would be comfortable with the inherent risk and uncertainty.

  * Does the LUG infact buy all that much?  Don't just browse through
    the archives and think that many people are reporting purchases,
    but actually count the number of bodies, lenses and accessories
    that are purchased *new*.  I think you'll find that it's less
    than you might expect.  Individual people may spend a lot of
    money, but collectively, I suspect the purchases are moderate.

  * Leica has no interest in this.  We buy the stuff anyway, simply
    because X people rave about the Noctilux/75 Summilux/R8/whatever
    and Y people cannot resist the urge to buy one.  Besides, we are
    already great ambassadors for Leica's gear.


M.

- -- 
Martin V. Howard, Application Systems Laboratory,     | 
Dept. of Comp. & Info. Sci., Linkoping University,    | Just "DOHH" it!
SE-581 83 Linkoping, Sweden.  Tel +46 13 282 421,     +----------------+
Fax +46 13 142 231; marho@ida.liu.se; www.ida.liu.se/~marho