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(not a deal) Is https://www.bhphotovideo.com a legitimate website or a scam website?


GTsongwriter

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10 hours ago, kevin H said:

This was a long time ago and was only looking at music gear.  I really wanted to try out a synth I had my eye on and had seen in their catalog but when I got there nothing was on display.  Probably things are different now. I ended up going to Sam Ash and Guitar center which was more the experience I was imagining in my head heheh. 

Yeah, they have never been a "music store" they sell some music and A/V gear of course but hence the name Photo Video - that is the real niche.  They have a warehouse for the other stuff they stock.  

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Very legit, they've been in business since the 1970s.  I miss living close to NYC but many of the photo/video and music stores have closed anyway.  47th Street Photo was similar but went out of business in the 90s, B&H and Adorama, etc were smart and branched out quite successfuly.  I think 42nd Street Photo is still in business.  B&H is probably the only photo/video-focused store I'd buy music gear from, if any of the others even sell music gear.  I miss the great NYC music stores like Manny's a lot too.

It was always fun to haggle in these stores as well.  I hadn't been back to NYC in a while but decided to take my wife there a few years back since she had only been there once in her life.  She wanted something in one of the electronics stores and said "that's a good price" and almost went to buy it for that but it was nice to find out that you can still haggle after I told her you don't buy anything in a NYC electronics shop for the tagged price :)   Sorry, this thread sent me down memory lane a bit.

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1 hour ago, IK Multimedia said:

Very legit, they've been in business since the 1970s.  I miss living close to NYC but many of the photo/video and music stores have closed anyway.  47th Street Photo was similar but went out of business in the 90s, B&H and Adorama, etc were smart and branched out quite successfuly.  I think 42nd Street Photo is still in business.  B&H is probably the only photo/video-focused store I'd buy music gear from, if any of the others even sell music gear.  I miss the great NYC music stores like Manny's a lot too.

It was always fun to haggle in these stores as well.  I hadn't been back to NYC in a while but decided to take my wife there a few years back since she had only been there once in her life.  She wanted something in one of the electronics stores and said "that's a good price" and almost went to buy it for that but it was nice to find out that you can still haggle after I told her you don't buy anything in a NYC electronics shop for the tagged price :)   Sorry, this thread sent me down memory lane a bit.

Many of the little shops outside of B&H and Adorama are grey market dealers, and thus can haggle.

B&H will have set price limits on new photo gear in particular, but they are allowed to create bundles (i.e throw in a memory card, backpack, etc)  on a high end camera purchase.  But you will see that actual dealers can't take the list price down - all they can do is sweeten the pot unless there is a brand approved sale.  

This isn't the case for other types of electronics but is common practice with pro photo equipment and thus why everyone other than grey market dealers have the exact same price.

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2 hours ago, Brian Walton said:

Many of the little shops outside of B&H and Adorama are grey market dealers, and thus can haggle.

B&H will have set price limits on new photo gear in particular, but they are allowed to create bundles (i.e throw in a memory card, backpack, etc)  on a high end camera purchase.  But you will see that actual dealers can't take the list price down - all they can do is sweeten the pot unless there is a brand approved sale.  

This isn't the case for other types of electronics but is common practice with pro photo equipment and thus why everyone other than grey market dealers have the exact same price.

For sure, they're a great store and I'm happy they handle value through bundling etc instead of straight up haggling since they're a dealer of ours :) But also they're generally pretty cool regardless.

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Another definitely legit. I forget now what they did a few years ago, but I seem to remember they rolled the "mandated sales tax" onto their credit card for purchases you make with them (as a refund back to you). I am not sure if that is still active, but it was a nice gesture to their customers at the time. I have not bought from them in a while, but they often bubble up on the list when looking for a specific product.

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I’ve bought from them before, with no problem. I think my last order was for a type of preamp tube I couldn’t find elsewhere—after exhausting the usual suspects. 

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