I saw a Tweet yesterday exhorting someone to investigate cameras in Australia and then go overseas to buy one from what is known as the “grey market”. And then I saw a magazine with a story telling you how to buy “smart gadgets” overseas to save money.

My colleagues in the industry may howl over this; in fact I’ll guarantee they will. But it is something I am strong on (I detest the overuse of the word ‘passionate’) as the bigger picture is so much more important.

For those not familiar with the term, the grey market is a retailer in Hong Kong or similar who is happy to sell you a brand name from there or via an agent in Australia, and ship it to you here upon a pre-payment. There can be substantial savings by doing this, especially on high ticket products.

But as I say, I feel there is a bigger picture than this going here. Let’s take the one that will fire up my peers first.

I find it very short-sighted in recommending the grey market to people if you are a tech journalist in Australia. Let’s face it, the products you review are given to you (and sometimes this is permanent) from the Australian distributor, or their PR Agency, of the parent company. You write the story and are (usually) paid in Australian $ for your work from the revenue your publication gets in adverts and the like, also paid to them in AUD$ by the advertisers who are the same people who lent you the equipment to review.

But then the writer advises  a contact to buy the product in HK$?  In a public forum even? How is this justified? Is it ethical in the long run?

I know of cases where product sourced from overseas has been display stock repackaged, is not suitable for Australia for a number of reasons (in the past NTSC sent not PAL devices), and more often than not, doesn’t have English language manuals, suitable power supplies for Australia and worse, no warranty.

Make no bones; from at least Panasonic, Sony, Canon and Nikon, NO item purchased from an overseas reseller will have a warranty that is applicable in Australia. You can only take the risk of sending the unit back to the place of purchase and hope they will honour something. But I wouldn’t hold your breath from the stories I have heard.

Thus, if a tech journalist suggests you buy from overseas, I think they are doing you a disservice as they are not telling the whole story. In effect, they are telling the same story the overseas resellers (or their agents in Australia) do and that the main thing is Price. This is of course not so.

Yes we have a responsibility to our readers (but as can be seen above, by not telling the whole story, perhaps that responsibility is not being as complete as it should be) but surely we also have a responsibility to our employers. That applies no matter if we are the receptionist, storeman, cleaner, sales manager or journalist, freelance or not, in my opinion.

Now let’s look at the bigger picture.

As money is sent off shore to buy these goods, there is less money to go around in Australia. Thus, jobs are cut, businesses are closed, and entire sections of a company are sent overseas to cheaper equivalents in India, Malaysia and the Philippines for example.

Fewer sales by the major retailers of consumer goods mean higher prices to cover costs that don’t go down. And while I realise there is a trend in some locations to “price gouge”, in many cases this is not so. Rents, wages, power costs, insurances and so on don’t drop if sales do, so you, as a businessman have to put prices up, no matter you are the corner deli or Gerry himself. That should be common sense. (Except it doesn’t apply to fuel where I am convinced there is ‘fixing’. That is another story.)

Let me know what you think. You can create a login via the top right of this page (its free) and then comment on any story, tutorial, review or anything else in Auscam.

By David Hague

David is the owner and publisher of AusCam Online. He has a background in media dating back to 1979 when he first got involved with photojournalism in motorsport, and went from there into technology via a 5 year stint with Tandy Computers. Following that, he ran a software distribution company on the Gold Coast and was one of the first to recognise the potential of Microsoft Windows.

Moving back to WA, David wrote scripts for Computer Television for video training for the just released Windows and Office 95 among others, and was then lured to Sydney to create web sites for the newly commercial Internet in 1995, building hundreds of sites under contract to OzEmail including Coates Hire, Hertz Queensland, John Williamson, the NSW Board of Studies and many, many more.

He went back into full time journalism as the Managing Editor for Channel 7's 'Gadget Guy', Peter Blasina's publications VideoCamera and Pixelmag, before starting Australasian Camcorder magazine when these publications were shelved. He lives at Sydney's Avalon Beaches nearly on the ocean front with dog Budweiser and in his spare time is a nut for motor sport, road safety, fishing, science fiction - especially Dr Who - and technology.

David can be contacted via david@auscamonline.com