[FS: GEAR] Arri Mini Price Increase coming May 1st??

[Andrew Bissonnette]

Hey, I couldn't think of a better place to put this. I'm wondering if I missed a news release or something..

Anyways, I received an email from a rep at a certain international cam/lens reseller (there is a thread about this reseller in this forum, sorry for cryptic nature) about Arri increasing the price of the Mini on May 1, 2016.

It was hard to decipher much information from his email, but I asked if there was an Arri official announcement and he sent me images of a cover sheet for a document titled "ARRI Price List 05/2016" (attached). It was only the cover sheet and didn't have the rest of the document attached. But he insists that the prices are going up (at least in Europe).

He didn't seem to know much at this point regarding reasons for the increase, but suspects the price to increase 5% to 7%.

I don't mean to fuel rumor mills, but I am wondering if anyone has heard anything about this?

Andrew Bissonnette

 

[Neil Dearman]

I was hearing that the price would go up due to the demand for the camera, which means they have to up production costing more money (which causes prices going up). There are places you can buy and actually get good deals I bought a full kit and saved a ton of money. If you buy direct from Arri you will have to pay more but you can buy from other vendors (got mine from Britain). It took about 2-3 weeks for mine (wait time right now from Arri is about 6 months). This is the hottest camera right now and everyone wants to rent/shoot on it.

 

[Andrew Bissonnette]

For anyone interested, I called Arri NY. I can't remember the name of the guy I spoke to, but he was very helpful. He said the Euro prices for the Mini are going up on 5/1 basically due to the influx of grey market Mini's entering the states. It is currently cheaper to buy the Mini in Europe, the prices are adjusted for the 20% VAT (not sure if this applies to other models also). The problem is all the Cameras bought from Europe (FJS) can't be serviced in the US. So the price increase is trying to combat that.

 

[Gene Sung]

For anyone interested, I called Arri NY. I can't remember the name of the guy I spoke to, but he was very helpful. He said the Euro prices for the Mini are going up on 5/1 basically due to the influx of grey market Mini's entering the states. It is currently cheaper to buy the Mini in Europe, the prices are adjusted for the 20% VAT (not sure if this applies to other models also). The problem is all the Cameras bought from Europe (FJS) can't be serviced in the US. So the price increase is trying to combat that.

When the Mini came out, I was a bit delusional and thought I could afford one. I was going to Europe anyways, and thought I would pick one up and bring it back to the USA because the Europe price was e34,500 and the USA price was $45,000. Since the dollar is doing well against the Europe, the Mini is about $9000 more in the USA than Europe. No VAT if you don't live in the EU.

Does anyone know why the USA and Euro Mini pricing is so drastically different? Especially since the Dollar and Euro pricing of Red cameras are the same.

 

[NateWeaver]

He said the Euro prices for the Mini are going up on 5/1 basically due to the influx of grey market Mini's entering the states. It is currently cheaper to buy the Mini in Europe, the prices are adjusted for the 20% VAT (not sure if this applies to other models also). The problem is all the Cameras bought from Europe (FJS) can't be serviced in the US. So the price increase is trying to combat that.

So to be crystal clear, Arri USA in NY said this is a Arri DE/UE price increase ONLY?

That would make sense.

Also, Minis are generally on the shelf now in stock in the US, so raising US prices now that demand is a little bit lower seems....like it would not happen

 

[Erich Roland]

Arri has been surprised by the demand for the Mini-Alexa and has needed to adjust accordingly. The Mini was meant to fill a niche need but many customers who might have waited for the SXT have bought the Mini. Why?.... because it does almost everything the full size camera will do and more… also get very small and light-weight. The XT and SXT sales will suffer because of the Mini’s success thereby costing Arri projected profits, so raising prices makes some sense. Props to Red as Arri has obviously followed the small-box design concept and it’s winning over it’s own customers away from the traditional large camera platform.