check this website out

[brian bearden]

hotbuyselectronics.com has some great deals on binoculars and spottingscopes. i talked to some guys that bought some binoculars from them and they love them (Pentax and Swarovski) i wonder how they are so much cheaper than cabelas or bass pro?

[jackrabbit]

I know their Swarovski's are "grey market", that is they are made in Europe and do not come with the USA warranty -- they are new, maybe unblemished product maybe, but you need to ship back to Europe for warranty work. ###Don't know about any items which originate in the US as far as manufacture and distribution. ###I checked out the Swarovski deal with both hotbuys and Swarovski USA.

[bubba]

So were paying on average 600 dollars more for a USA Warranty. ###Sounds fishy to me.

[karstic]

No your also paying import and duty fees and shipping. Also the European warranties may not cover the same things as the US warranty.

[SeaSpearo]

Hi Brian:
Sounds like you did a lot of homework on the binoculars. Did you make your pick yet? Do you mind to tell us what you choose? And at which place?
I am also searching for a pair. From the posting in here, I can tell Swarovski is the king, but for 1000+ sounds too much. You mentioned some website from Europe is much cheaper, can you post the website too?

Thanks!

Victor

[Kickaha]

There are a lot of grey market camera dealers out there as well. All that I've looked into had very shady reputations. They will lie about nearly everything. It starts with whether they have it in stock and then (usually not). Then the lies about the shipping dates start. Now and then people who keep at it sometimes receive their order. But you had better hope that there's nothing wrong with it.

Before you purchase anything on the web, you should take a look at http://www.resellerratings.com/index.html