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Duty Free Shopping


Shit-Spattered Dog

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Is duty free shopping still what it used to be? Not only has the internet made us into global citizens, its made duty free a thing of the pass. Great duty free anyhow. My last purchase was in Hong Kong in 2002 and it was where I saved about $800.00 over the price from our local camera shop. The bad news was that digital took over a year later rendering my beloved Pentax Mz obsolete before I finished reading the manual.

 

This time I will play is safer.

 

Nikon d300 with cmos sensor and with some kind of lens. Problem is I don't know what the prices will be in duty free. Anybody been thought Singapore lately? I will transiting in Peking ( Beijing )and Hong Kong each for about 2 hours. I will then have about 3 hours in Singapore.

 

You can only do so much with a free ticket so Thailand is out this year.

 

Singapore has much more in shopping more then Hong Kong but are the prices any better than here? The local camera shop wants about $1700.00 for the D300 without any lens. I thought about calling Singapore city directly and asking the local camera shops what their prices are so if they give a lower price in the city then it should be about the same or less at the duty free counter. Assuming they will give out the prices on the phone and a honest price.

 

Just don't have the time to stroll into the city so it will be at the Airport if I shop.

 

Shit

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I found camera prices in Singapore Airport a bit ordinary.

I ended up buying my last camera in Australia in a discount electronic store and getting the GST back when I left the country.

 

 

mmmm, DD Electronics's website wants more for the body alone then from our local retailer. Maybe in person you could get the price down but likely not worth the hassle.

 

 

Which shop did you look in and what terminal?

 

Shit.

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mmmm, DD Electronics's website wants more for the body alone then from our local retailer. Maybe in person you could get the price down but likely not worth the hassle.

 

 

Which shop did you look in and what terminal?

 

Shit.

It was a while ago, I just browsed around in the Singapore Airlines terminal over several visits.

Have you checked eBay?

I noticed camera prices from Malaysian vendors were lower than the norm at the time. (About three years ago).

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It was a while ago, I just browsed around in the Singapore Airlines terminal over several visits.

Have you checked eBay?

I noticed camera prices from Malaysian vendors were lower than the norm at the time. (About three years ago).

 

 

I did a search. A very popular used item on ebay with lots of deals on it including lens, batteries, flashes, etc. The flip side too the better price is that it does not hold a decent resale price. No big surprise i guess. My own slr sits unloved practically unused. If it was used again then it's back and forth to the photo shop for development, fresh film, shot rolls rolling around my back pack,etc.

 

Dslrs' well can't beat the convenience but every 18 months there is a newer model. So the best bet for value looks like to buy a couple of years old high end model let someone else eat the depreciation. New is nice but sucks when you know it will lose half the paid value and a newer, better model sits in it's spot on the store shelf.

 

Shit.

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If you can get a lightly used and good condition second hand one, that's good.

 

On the other hand, knowing a camera's history from new can, have it's own satisfaction.

 

 

Some of the used ones had shutter counts posted.Didn't know about this. Never thought about this until I read the activations count. Seems there is a finite life span of the shutter. Someone had posted 12k activations, 48k activations, etc. A least a new one you know what your getting.

 

Learn something new each day. I'll likely buy used. No taxes, less deprecation. Although if you were to buy new, sell 18 months later, you end up the same. Losing half you money.

 

Shit.

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