Saving Money on the Canon EOS RP – I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but pricing on electronics and camera’s is fixed. The manufacturers set the retail price and threaten to withhold merchandise if any of their distributors advertise a lower price.
Above: “Red Caboose” photo by Edward M. Fielding shot with a Canon EOS RP and Canon EF 300 mm lens. Note: this site is funded by sales of my fine art photographs. Prints are available here.
edwardfielding.com
So you see the same price everywhere. Electronics and cameras have a slim profit margin of around 10% on the bodies and maybe up to 30% on lenses and accessories compared to say furniture which marketed up 80%. So it makes sense for manufacturers to enforce pricing,
Average Mark Ups on Popular Products
- Movie theater popcorn has an average markup of 1,275 percent
- Diamonds gem markups range from 50 to 400 percent.
- Bottled water – 4,000%.
- Hotel minibars – 400%
- Greeting cards – 200%
- Furniture – 80%
But there are a few strategies of getting a better deal on that new camera purchase. One is negotiating with the seller at the store. I did this once when buying a camcorder. I said I can get this online for this price, what will you do for me? And I gave them an option, hey how about tossing in an extra battery and I’ll buy this today?
The salesperson at an electronics store need to keep their numbers up and they want to move quickly from one sale to the next, so if you do your research and make a reasonable deal, they most likely will take you up on the offer.
Now if the item is really hot, they might just laugh off the offer. This happened to me at a car dealership when I was looking at the original Toyota Rav4 which was one of the first small SUVs on the market. No big deal, I just ended up buying it at another dealer.
Another way to save money is to purchase the bundle kit lens package. Often when a new camera comes out, they have a kit that includes a lens. If you need that lens, then consider buying the bundle because you usually save a few hundred dollars off the lens.
But do your homework. Investigate the lens and see if it really is something you want and check the quality. Often the kit lens is a cheaper, inferior lens to a more expensive one.
Also, shop around at the different warehouse stores. After buying my Canon 6D with the 25-105 mm kit lens, I kicked myself when I saw a two lens bundle at Costco.
Warehouse stores do not like to compete with other stores on a one to one basis. That’s why you have to buy two bags of chips instead of just one. The don’t want any direct comparison on price.
So a company like Canon will work with Costco to create a unique package just for them. So its worthwhile checking out the warehouse stores. You might get something extra, like a printer or an extra lens.
Another way to save some money is by shopping around for various bundles. Retailers like to use the hot new items to pull you into their store where perhaps you’ll buy more stuff in the future.
They also need to show to the manufacturers that they can move volume so the manufacturer will give them more inventory in the future.
When the next hot item comes out, the manufacturer will have a limited supply and will distribute them to the best retails with a proven track record.
One of the goals is to see the item start selling out in the first few weeks, which makes news in the user community and creates even more desire for this elusive item.
So the retailers can’t compete for sales of the hot new items on price, so what they do is they start creating their own bundle. They might toss in some iTunes gift cards (which are essentially money) or they might gather up some inexpensive, overstock items they have laying around the warehouse – like cheap monopods or SD cards or camera cases or lens filters.
Basically, they’ll create some kind of bundle that looks like you are getting a lot more for your money. Some of the bundles are a pile of cheap junk but some give you stuff you’ll actually need like an SD card or extra battery.
You are more likely to find these deals on entry level cameras and popular cameras. The retailers are not as likely to create deals if they know the buyers are professionals who don’t need this stuff and they won’t bother to create bundles on more niche items or even products with a smaller market.