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Just walked past at lunch today and noticed the big closing down posters. Can't compete with the great auction site and other importers?

Unfortunately I was rushing to a meeting so didn't get a chance to check for any bargains.

Ben

Dang! ... I was in the city today too .. wished I'd knew .. would have walked from Wynyard to have a look.

Yep...closing after 36years in the business

Couldn't compete because of their antiquated customer focus, overpriced merchandise and poor quality sales staff. Thirty six years of ripping people off has finally come to a close.

If a company can't change to new ways of thinking and doing business, then struggle they will.

Good luck finding a closing down bargain there.

They were always VERY expensive, and every single time i went in there too busy to notice me, bad at negotiating. I purchased elsewhere, glad they are closing down as its obvious they cant compete.

Classic example is when I brought my 30D, some $120 more expensive then teds. The older guy was about as useful as a hole in a bucket.

I was planning on heading in to the ACP exhibition today. Might drop in and take a look to see how much things are still overpriced by...

Killakoala wrote:Good luck finding a closing down bargain there.

Steve,

"bargain" is a relative term here.

Bargains are probably possible - if they go for 50% off thats like 20% off anywhere else. Still reasonable... I might find myself tempted by a $2500 5D

Dang, I was just by Town Hall station and didn't walk pass today... Could have scavenged some half priced films/filter they have there if they are on 'bargains'....

Now there's a thought - they moight have sum cheep filum.

gstark wrote:Now there's a thought - they moight have sum cheep filum.

I'll be in that!

It'll all probably be 35mm... not even Paxton's has much of the 120 anymore...

Nnnnsic wrote:It'll all probably be 35mm... not even Paxton's has much of the 120 anymore...

But surely, they would stock a lot of 220 B&W, like everyone does????

Anyway, cheap B&W 35mm is fine with me!

P

Reschsmooth wrote:

Nnnnsic wrote:It'll all probably be 35mm... not even Paxton's has much of the 120 anymore...

But surely, they would stock a lot of 220 B&W, like everyone does????

Anyway, cheap B&W 35mm is fine with me!

P

That's what I thought too...

I went in one day to buy a D70 remote control. They wanted $59
I went to Teds and got it for $29

That's why they went broke.

lol

they gave me the shits, every time i go in there they give me attitude.
last time i wanted to buy a sandisk 2gb CF they wanted $200 for it.

khalil wrote:lol

they gave me the shits, every time i go in there they give me attitude.
last time i wanted to buy a sandisk 2gb CF they wanted $200 for it.

At least you got something! I've only been in there once, looking for portable image drives. I was in the shop for ages, and you would have thought I had leprosy or something, instead of money to spend! Not one iota of interest in me as a customer. Just desserts.
Frank

I went in there for work before Christmas. I wanted to buy a Manfrotto 486RC2 tripod head - they didn't have it and the price quoted was around $30 higher than Teds.

After failing me in both price and availability, I was abused by their staff because I wanted to mount a D70 & kit lens on the aforementioned head. I'm not joking, the staff told me I was stupid to do this, in front of other customers, and were yelling at me as I walked out the door

Went in to have a look today. All the signs were either 20 to 30% off, and only the bottom level. The good stuff (i.e. Nikon/Canon lenses and camera bodies) upstairs weren't marked with any discounts.

Didn't realise just how overpriced these guys were until today. They had an SB800 on display with a marked price of $900!

Ben

Patrick - I prefer your most recent avatar than the last one

Thought I would check out the sale prices too.
They have a 28-70 2.8 in the "pro" section upstairs. The "pro" salesman offered this to me for the bargain price of $3320 (he said their cost was $3310).
They also had an 8gb Sandisk CF card which I was offered at $550 downstairs.
Things are not going to last long at those bargain prices

At CCC camera house they have a 70-200VR which I was offered at $2700. Although they do have the slingshot 300AW marked at $199.95 which I am sure we could have for much less with a little haggle.

Bargains are everywhere!!!

Cheers, Mick

I've had far to many a bad experience in this store to feel overly bad about them closing. I mean I actually feel bad about any business closing - I just think about my business, and the possibilty of it failing. Good business' can fail also which is sad... But G&V's practices were not exactly condusive to encouraging repeat business... or any business IMHO.

I actually tried to give them business 6 months ago and asked them to fax me a quote for over $16K worth of stock... Went in twice... no dice.... Oh well.. enjoy your retirement....

Cheers, Nathan.

Based on the comments here ... I guess I have not missed anything in not walking into G&V last week.

I went in today to have a look, their 2nd floor is pretty much empty with a few stuffs left.

Here is from what I noted today:

Films: 10% off

Photo paper 15% off

Camera bags 20% off

What should be interested is that they have a Pelican 1520 case for $450 - 20%, that is $360 incl GST for this case, not too bad considering you dont have to pay for any shipping cost!

They also have another one of a HUGE pelican case, havent asked for the price of this one, but I assume it is somewhere around $750 before the 20% discount.

If anyone who is looking for a pelican case, grab this one, it should fit a 70-200VR and a body plus couple other lenses/flash around.

G&V listed a lot of lenses in the Sun Herald last weekend.

A Nikon 17-35mm AF-S which I am currently saving for was advertised at something like $3100 discounted to $2500. I can buy it retail just about anywhere at this price - what saving

For those who are willing to accept grey market, this same lens can be purchased for $1900 which is a reasonable price.

Oscar wrote:Thought I would check out the sale prices too.
They have a 28-70 2.8 in the "pro" section upstairs. The "pro" salesman offered this to me for the bargain price of $3320 (he said their cost was $3310).

Todays price for the 28-70 $2855 (their cost price!!!)

Cheers, Mick  BTW a couple of doors along George St is CCC Camera House who are also closing down. Discounts but I don't think too many bargains!

MarkW wrote:For those who are willing to accept grey market, this same lens can be purchased for $1900 which is a reasonable price.

I guess we should put our prices up then. if $1900 is reasonable, how does one describe our current price of $1589 ?

Oscar wrote:They have a 28-70 2.8 in the "pro" section upstairs. The "pro" salesman offered this to me for the bargain price of $3320 (he said their cost was $3310). Todays price for the 28-70 $2855 (their cost price!!!)

That's a trend I can appreciate... I might go in later in the week and offer them 10% less than the QualityCameras price for their 300/2.8 if they still have it. I'd be willing to pay $6k for one of those

In happier new, http://www.lensrental.com.au have the 1DIII available for rental already. Sooo very tempting to try one for a weekend...

Moz

They also have a 200-400 for over $9,000. FWIW

Cheers, Mick

I guess we should put our prices up then. if $1900 is reasonable, how does one describe our current price of $1589 ?

Didn't know your price was so low - where is this advertised? - is this an Australian purchase or one through HK BTW The actual price I was paying is less than $1800 but as this price was not available to non members of another forum I submitted an approximate price of what was available at Discount Digital Photog at Nth Syd. As both the DDP and mine are Australian purchases, issues such as GST and customs fee are a non event. If your price is subject to import GST and Customs fees then the two prices are somewhat similar.