Are high street shops flexible on price?

[Eat The Rich]

Just a quick question. I'm after a Canon EOS 450D and the cheapest place I've seen it is Wilkinsons Cameras in Preston for £489.99. I know they offer different packages but are places like this flexible at all? Obviously they'll argue they're cheapest but do they ever budge? i.e. throw in a case/card etc? I'm gonna go in and check but I just wondered...

I sorta thought the 450D would come down a little now with the 500D being released, obviously not.

Thanks

 

[jian]

Jessops would only price match when I was buying a flashgun. They wouldn't budge one bit, and this was at two branches.

 

[dazza74]

Not in my experience, Jessops wouldn't match their web price when I went to buy my D300 instore.

 

[sunn]

i work in retail cameras, and unfortunately i would never budge, regardless of what you are buying.

it is probably worse in a specific camera shop since they will have top of the range cameras being sold without discount, so there would be no reason to discount a 450d. Furthermore i would probably be less inclinded to help you further if you asked me directley for money off...just ask around the question like "are there any good packages" ect.

hope this doesn't sound rude!

 

[dazza74]

i work in retail cameras, and unfortunately i would never budge, regardless of what you are buying.

To small margins I guess to be able to do it?

 

[Eat The Rich]

Ok thanks guys, I appreciated it.

Can you give me a bit of advice then? I'm spending 3 months this summer in upstate New York teaching mountain biking then going travelling the world for a year (alone!). Needless to say I need a new camera and I'm set on a 450D. I figured they'd drop in price a bit as the 500D has been released but it doesn't seem so. I'm heading out on June 14 so I can wait another week or so but I want a bit of practice with it before I go so don't want to leave it to last minute.

The cheapest I've seen the 450D is £486.20 at Argos. With this I could get a 1/3 off the Lowepro Rexo 120AW bag and SanDisk Extreme III card. This takes the camera, bag and 4GB card to ~£520 - does this seem a decent deal?

Thanks!

 

[sunn]

thats by far the best deal!!

we sell the cameras itself for more than that : 0.

if you do a little research on the net you might be able to get one even cheaper if you get an oem box, ie a camera that comes in non retail packaging (basically a plain box)

 

[Pirate!!]

Are you after body only? If so, Look here and with kit lens here.

Hope this helps.

P.S. I don't know the product at all, so am curious to know if the kit lens is any good. If not, then maybe body only and source a better lens elsewhere.

 

[Eat The Rich]

thats by far the best deal!!

we sell the cameras itself for more than that : 0.

if you do a little research on the net you might be able to get one even cheaper if you get an oem box, ie a camera that comes in non retail packaging (basically a plain box)

Ok thanks for your advice. Yeah it does seem a pretty good package when bought from Argos, in comparison to everywhere else anyway. I'm gonna wait until next weekend either way.

Thanks for everyone's replies up to now...

 

[jonnypb]

never had an issue with jessops not price matching, discounting lenses or accessories

always bought my camera bodies from jessops as they've always matched online prices

 

[jenufa]

Have you thought about 2nd hand.

Canon EOS 450D DSLR Camera with EFS 18-55mm IS Lens on eBay, also, Digital Cameras, Photography (end time 28-May-09 17:40:18 BST)

 

[Eat The Rich]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah I originally considered second hand but I think I'm gonna go for a new one -thanks for the link though.

The Argos offer still looks the best for me as for £525 you get the camera, 4GB SanDisk Extreme III card and Lowepro Rezo 120 bag. The offer is on until June 16 so I'm gonna leave it this week to see if anything else comes up. Otherwise I'm all over it

 

[Eat The Rich]

Thanks for all your help everyone.

I've just picked up a 450D, SanDisk Extreme III 4GB card, Lowepro case and cleaning kit for £540 and that was with a 3 year guarantee from a shop called Wilkinson Cameras in Preston. They were really helpful. Just charging the battery now, can't wait to get shooting!