[Icom] How legit do you think this is? BurhanRadio.com

[Jerry Flanders]

I have no information about the legitimacy of Burhanradio, but this simply 
appears to be a startup "gray-market" import operation to me. For years, 
independent importers have been bringing expensive cameras into the USA and 
selling them WELL below the usual "authorized dealer" price. In the case of 
the cameras, all you miss is the usual USA warranty - instead you get the 
international warranty, and you might have to ship it to 
Canada/Europe/Japan if you needed warranty service after the importers 
warranty expired (or just pay for the repair from an independent repair 
shop). The last lens I bought for my Nikon N80s was gray-market.

In case you guys never noticed, the USA company importing ICOM gear is NOT 
ICOM - it is an independent "affiliated" company that imports, sells and 
services ICOM gear in the USA. ICOM (Japan) is a publicly traded company. I 
am pretty sure ICOM America is privately owned.

Frankly, I have wondered for a LONG time why no clever importer did this 
with the major ham radio product lines. The gray-market camera importers do 
well, and everybody except the "authorized" importer benefits.

It is strange, though, that the given Burhanradio street address appears to 
be nonexistent. I am cautious until we find out why.

Jerry W4UK


At 07:47 10/30/02 -0500, you wrote:
>These guys may not be legit, But the prices our real. I just got back from
>TOKYO 3 weeks ago I was shopping in electronics Mart in Tokyo at ROCKETS Ham
>store you can buy a brand new PW1 for 3300.00 dollars. They will not ship
>these themselves but if your there you can take over to their post office and
>ship EMS weight is very close but I sent 775DX II this way and received it
>back into the states with no duty and was delivered by the us post office in
>3 days insured cost 164.00 dollars. Next time I go over I will ship pw1 back.
>I have one know and there great amp.
>
>Phil KG4LRU
>
>
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