My long forgotten love afair with printed catalogues has just been re - awakened by the appearance in my post box last week of the Winter 2007/ 2008 B & H Catalogue.

[I know this is old news, but it seems that for Asia/ Pacific they're first shipped to Colombo in Sri Lanka, then trans shipped onwards from there. Obviously very slow boats to China etc etc. Very pretty stamps, however. Oh, 115, I presume Rupees, postage from Colombo]

Anyway, I still haven't managed to get through it from cover to cover (no time) but what a mine of information it truly is.

Oh, and the photographs! For all those of you who only trawl the WWW and are hooked on those low res, fuzzy and always too small piccies on the average web site, this thing is truly a revelation.

The gear! There's stuff in this thing I didn't even know existed till now. I'm gonna have to do sommat pretty serious to keep my credit card out of trouble.

For all you newbies out there, get a copy of this thing. It shows samples of just about any video gear you're ever likely to need or want more clearly than anything I've discovered on - line.

It isn't a listing of everything B & H do, seems to be a pretty good subset to whet your appetite, but still comes in about the same thickness as the Dunedin phone directory (for the many thousands of you who've seen one!).

Does make me think that B & H really should up their game in the on - line photo department tho', the ones in the catalogue just scream "buy me", the ones on the web site just sort of say "whassat?"

Hook on and sign up for this thing - it's even FREE!


* The author has not been paid, bribed, threatened or otherwise coerced into writing the above, he just loves printed catalogues.

** The author may be a tad sad, however, and needs to get out more.


CS



115 Sri Lankan Rupees = $1.06 US, no wonder they post 'em from there!

My long forgotten love afair with printed catalogues has just been re - awakened by the appearance in my post box last week of the Winter 2007/ 2008 B & H Catalogue.

[I know this is old news, but it seems that for Asia/ Pacific they're first shipped to Colombo in Sri Lanka, then trans shipped onwards from there. Obviously very slow boats to China etc etc. Very pretty stamps, however.

Thanks. I'm sorry delivery is so slow. If you want something more current, you can view the current catalogues in pdf format at http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/FreeCatalog.jsp

I got mine over a month ago - I agree it's great to have hands on stuff - a great toilet read except I need a pen to circle all the things I want to get.

What's the philosophy behind not simply listing the price for everything? Why do so many items say "call for price?"

The inside of the front cover tells that particular story.

With the gyrations of the US$ against the Yen, Yuan etc etc I would imagine a great many of the prices would be out of date before the ink was dry.

In my case, watching the NZ$ yo - yo against the US$ gives me ample opportunity to "strike whilst the iron is hot" and get a bargain when the NZ$ takes off for the stratosphere (with absolutely no visible means of support, I may add - er, the kiwi dollar, not me).

Henry:-

Yeah, I've checked the PDF's, definately better than the Web site, BUT, doing a direct comparison between the PDF and the printed catalogue, the catalogue has the prize for clarity and detail (of pictures) by a country mile.

The PDF's just don't have that extra zing.


CS

Are you saying the prices fluctuate? Even US prices?

Reckon so. If the US$ drops through the floor against the currency of the manufactureing country, then the prices (in the US) must go up. And vice versa.

CS

This must affect only items above a certain price point, or only certain items, since some stuff DOES have listed prices.

What's the philosophy behind not simply listing the price for everything? Why do so many items say "call for price?"

There's often an imposed limit on advertised prices by the manufacturer. "email me a better price" and "call for price" are ways to sell an item below that imposed limit.

The other part of the philosophy is that it keeps the competition from easily assessing what you're selling things for.

-gb-

Its a real pity that B&H dont have a european based store. What a bonus that would be for the non-americans among us.

Ill be keeping my fingers crossed :)

Are you saying the prices fluctuate? Even US prices?

It's a quarterly catalogue. You bet prices fluctuate! And, in some cases we may not advertise our selling price if it's below MAP. Some companies limit what we can say in those circumstances. Also, rather than advertise a price so high no one would buy the item, we'd rather ask you to contact us for the current real price.

We appreciate that this is sometimes an inconvenience and we do what we can to keep inconveniences to a minimum.

Whereabouts in Chelmsford? Know it well (used to have a long term girlfriend there [luckily, never became a very expensive ex - wife!]).

Is there a reason (apart from UK import duties etc) you can't use New York?

If B & H was ever to set up a European hub, London would be the obvious choice I guess, but one heck of an expensive leap into the unknown, and there's always Jessops to take into account.

They aren't doing all that well 'cos of the cheapies available on - line, and even I stopped shopping there for that very reason. The specialist retail sector in London is a bit of a disaster if you're heavilly discounting (which B&H can) due to the rents.

I'll let Henry answer the bottom line.


CS

Whereabouts in Chelmsford? Know it well (used to have a long term girlfriend there [luckily, never became a very expensive ex - wife!]).

Is there a reason (apart from UK import duties etc) you can't use New York?

If B & H was ever to set up a European hub, London would be the obvious choice I guess, but one heck of an expensive leap into the unknown, and there's always Jessops to take into account.

They aren't doing all that well 'cos of the cheapies available on - line, and even I stopped shopping there for that very reason. The specialist retail sector in London is a bit of a disaster if you're heavilly discounting (which B&H can) due to the rents.

I'll let Henry answer the bottom line.


CS

Over near Chelmer Village. How is life in New Zealand? Last time I was there was back in the 80s. Before Lord of the Rings ever touched it :)

I can use the New York branch. I guess its just hassle factor that Im referring to, and postage costs, and the old import duties as you mentioned.

Chris,

Europe badly needs a B&H equivalent! There are some stores that come close, but none of them have the sheer range of B&H.

I won't use B&H because of import taxes and duties, as well as shipping. I could make considerable savings, but do you take the risk of it slipping through the customs without them noticing? I tend not to be that lucky!

Jessops is (in my opinion) dreadful now from the video point of view. I used to use the Belfast store in the early 1990s and it was pretty good, lots of video camera gear (although nothing stellar - never any pro or semi pro ranges) and knowledgable staff. Now it's all point & click digital stills cameras and not much else - but they are pretty good at that side of things.

Of course, the UK is a much smaller market than the USA, so anything this side of the pond would definitely need to be a Europe-wide business.

Niall:

Yep, know where you're coming from. Chelmer Village? Hmm, not on my radar.

The EU/ UK duties etc are a complete pain in the proverbials, but even with those, it makes economic sense to use external sources if the cost is high enough and the savings good enough.

Mike:

Yeah, Jessops just seemed to go into free - fall sometime in the late 80's (I left the UK in the late 80's to travel, didn't really get back till the mid/ late 90's) by which time it seemed to have gone into terminal decline.

The last time I went into one of their stores (New Oxford Street, in London) none of the staff knew squat about anything and the entire place seemed to have lost the will to live, quite frankly.

Having given the whole situation some more grey cell time, I reckon London is probably the worst place to site such a store (if anyone was going to do it, which I doubt).

Not sure just where the "perfect location" would be, but the centre of the EU sounds good - now, just where, exactly, IS THAT?

Prague? Paris? Munich?

I don't know.

Don't anybody dare say Brussels, that's a complete no - no

Suggestions, anyone?


CS

Question to Henry -

Last time I looked, B&H WOULDN'T ship abroad (i.e. outside US) anyway - so not only do lots of people in Europe not choose to use B&H, they CAN'T. I recall being handed a B&H catalogue at a UK Video Forum show in London with the apology "you can't actually buy anything from this, even online..."

Care to comment? Maybe I'm wrong about the "B&H WOULDN'T ship abroad"?

http://www.bhphotovideo.com/find/HelpCenter/int-shippingRulesPolicies.jsp

They do ship abroad.

However, this reminded me of another reason why I haven't tried them - they only ship to your home address (your credit card address I suppose). I understand why - to combat fraud etc. - but it's just not practical for me, I prefer to get parcels delivered to my work address. Most of the UK dealers will do this, or at least they use Royal Mail who have a depot in every town rather than 100 miles away.

Otherwise the parcel would be returned to some remote courier depot that I can't get to... or worse still, leave it on the doorstep and hope that some passing tea leaf doesn't nick it.

I'm starting to sound like a B&H flunky.....guess what...I ain't.

Won't ship abroad?

Er, hello?

I've bought from them and I'm in, er, oh yeah, New Zealand, knew I was somewhere.

They ship anywhere. Just about anyone as does "on - line" ordering does the same. Couriers go where they're told, no more, no less.

Only deliver to the address of the Credit Card?

Why would anyone do anything else? Think about it.

If you require something different, you could always contact them to make special arrangements, heck, they are people, after all, not a machine!



CS

Last time I looked, B&H WOULDN'T ship abroad (i.e. outside US) anyway - so not only do lots of people in Europe not choose to use B&H, they CAN'T. I recall being handed a B&H catalogue at a UK Video Forum show in London with the apology "you can't actually buy anything from this, even online..."We certainly DO ship abroad. You were probably told you couldn't buy from our reps at the trade show. We used to take orders at some shows (for merchandise to be shipped as we never have actual products for sale there) but too many local sales tax and other tax laws made doing so impossible. I am sorry for any misunderstanding.
However, this reminded me of another reason why I haven't tried them - they only ship to your home address (your credit card address I suppose). I understand why - to combat fraud etc. - but it's just not practical for me, I prefer to get parcels delivered to my work address. You cannot place a web order with a non-USA billing address and a different ship-to address (unless the ship-to is a residence address within the USA) for security reasons. But, you CAN place an order with a non-USA billing address and ship to your work address provided it's in the same country as your home if you order via phone/fax/email.

But, you CAN place an order with a non-USA billing address and ship to your work address provided it's in the same country as your home if you order via phone/fax/email.

Henry,

Thank you for the clarification. This might come in handy in future!

I’ve been enjoying their catalogs for years now even though the only thing I’ve ever bought from B&H is the Canopus ADVC-300. It gives a lot of wealth of information. The only negative is the mistakes that I’ve seen in some of their catalogs including the latest one which lists the Samsung SC-HMX20C for $299.95.