Mark up prices for retail on lens

[R_Metzel]

Does anyone know what the mark up is from wholesale to retail on Canon lens. Just wondering because prices just seem so high for the L series. Like the 600mm L for example. I know you are paying for quality & IQ but $6-7000 for a lens. I always wonder what it really cost to make and what the camera stores buy it at. I guess if I had that kinda money just sitting around I wouldnt care. But I dont. Im saving for my first "L" right now. It will be the 70-200mm L USM. Any insight would be great from all you Canon Guru's.

[Brian Puccio]

Look at the rebate program Canon runs twice a year. Then consider the fact that after the rebate, they're still making a profit. I just bought the $650 200m f/2.8L and after the $50 rebate, I'm sure they are still making well over $100 off me.

[benhasajeep]

The bigger glass will have a higher markup say versus the small cheaper lenses. They don't sell alot of big lenses compared to the lower cost "normal" lenses. So they will need to make up more of their developement costs on each lens. I was at a major retailer one time and the mananger actually showed me their cost for a Nikon body. The stores markup was only 16%. Now I would expect that camera equipment is like car buying. They have an invoice price, and if you buy over a certain ammount you get different discount levels from the invoice price. Even though this was a major chain they did not sell a large variety of Nikon products. So to compete with others they may have had to keep their markup low.

[ssim]

You should try and buy lenses in Canada if you think the prices are too high. That 600mm that you are alluding to was retailing for 12,725.00. Canon Canada recently reduced their prices on L series (but only to the end of June). That same 600 was dropped to 9947.00 and you can bet that everyone in the retail food chain is still making money. With that price drop I had to get one, it was just too good to pass up. I think the problem was that there were too many Canadians buying cross border. Even with the exchange we were still money ahead.

Not too long ago I was looking for a lighting solution for a situation that I was involved in. My retailer (I always use the same one) sent me an email with a spreadsheet it in this the prices. He inadvertently left his cost in it. On the bigger ticket items it looked to be around a 20% markup. For smaller accessories it was much higher, probably around 30%. I doubt that the markup is that high on lenses but that is just a uneducated guess.

[Moppie]

20-30% is a standard retial mark up, if you can't average around that, depending on your bussiness, you won't make enough to keep the doors open.

Of course you can get all sorts of variations on that, a store with very high volume sales can get away with a much lower mark up, and vice versa for low volume sales, and of course loss leaders, or items sold at, or below cost, are now common practice in large retail stores like supermarkets etc.