Leica UK says M9 is selling out

Ah yes, nothing new there. It has been sold out since day one. As I understand, Leica is hoping to ctach up with production sometime April next year. It will have repercussion on delivery times of lenses as well, as those will see a peak in orders too.
 
The spokeswoman said she was not able to tell us how many cameras were part of the initial batch ...
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Why are these people always so damned cagey about the actual figures ... what does it matter?
 
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Well, what else should they say? They would be really lousy salesmen if they say that the stock is full and available any time:)
The article is payed PR/commercial for small kids to believe..
 
That may or may not be a good thing. Not having enough to come close to satisfying the initial demand leaves potential buyer enough time to cancel orders.

Bob
 
Nothing new here. Leica's very limited manufacturing capacity almost guarantees shortages of any new camera, which they then spin into marketing hype.
 
The leica spokewoman was "cagey" about numbers because the UK alotment was apparently 15 cameras, mostly pre-ordered.
 
jaapv said:
Ah yes, nothing new there. It has been sold out since day one. As I understand, Leica is hoping to ctach up with production sometime April next year. It will have repercussion on delivery times of lenses as well, as those will see a peak in orders too.
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The position as I understand it is that there are big waiting lists at all the UK dealers. I was about 'number 10' in the queue for an M8 last time but after Christmas, a lot of people could not raise the funds and I got the 3rd available one. Also a number of people may well have got their name on more than one list and possibly in more than one country. Certainly my dealer says there is a queue of 30 orders and that a significant number are not from the UK. If it is going to be April 2010 before there are significant supplies I expect a fair number will put their money elsewhere.

I appreciate demand outstrips supply but i am guessing that supplies are very low indeed to avoid quality control issues. Unfortunately waiting lists are not the same as sales.

One interesting repercussion may be a rise in M8.2 prices!

Richard
 
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Here in China the waiting list is about 3 days. 3 days! I know, I have helped two people get M9's in the last month. Basically how it goes here, you put your name down, pay the whole price, then in a couple days you get a call that you are next on the list and the camera will be shipped in a day or two.

At least that's what happened both times I bought them.

I know that China is a big market for Leica, they are hugely popular here with rich people's new found disposable income, but this is madness that the waiting lists would be so long elsewhere. Maybe that is how Leica makes up the funds to keep making the production runs? Sells of a big batch in China (for an inflated price I might mention, $10,500 USD) then take the money and pump out the others? Who knows, I am most likely talking out of my arse here.
 
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Not a bad theory. Japan was, & may still be, a big cash cow for luxury purveyors like Hermes & Louis Vuitton (or are they all the same conglomerate?) & they've set the example for all the other E. Asian economies, including PRC, which is now the biggest market of all. While Leica is no longer actually part of a luxury conglomerate, it's still pretty much in that market @ least as compared w/regular camera makers.

I'm pretty sure that anybody willing to pay $10,500 US could get 1 within 3 days in the U.S., too.

Avotius said:
Here in China the waiting list is about 3 days. 3 days! I know, I have helped two people get M9's in the last month. Basically how it goes here, you put your name down, pay the whole price, then in a couple days you get a call that you are next on the list and the camera will be shipped in a day or two.

At least that's what happened both times I bought them.

I know that China is a big market for Leica, they are hugely popular here with rich people's new found disposable income, but this is madness that the waiting lists would be so long elsewhere. Maybe that is how Leica makes up the funds to keep making the production runs? Sells of a big batch in China (for an inflated price I might mention, $10,500 USD) then take the money and pump out the others? Who knows, I am most likely talking out of my arse here.
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Well, we are talking about niche camera, so lets keep everything in perspective. I bet the total quantity sold worldwide is a very small number. I doubt China is getting a ton of them...
 
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