Bangalore Grey Market?

P

puppeteerX

Disciple
The subject says it all. Want to know if there's some kind of trustable grey market or specific shops in Bangalore that sell high end Electronic products like LCD TVs and ACs.

Any buying experiences shared will also be great.
 
Go to Majestic..

Check for Burma Bazar, Hongkong Market (basement)

Best would be National market & Bajaj complex. Be very careful. Outside look will be original but inside parts will be local ones. :)
 
Thanks.. i've been burma bazar and hk market -- that whole gandhinagar area.

No dealer there looks very good - in fact most people dont even care about you. And they're not trying to make a killing with expensive items, they're happy selling "4000W music systems" which keep blaring day in and out!

Adder.. i'll PM him!
 
If you dont know anyone there ure going to get ripped off buddy....I buy stuff from there cause I know some of them quite well now.
 
How can i possibly get ripped off..

I know what I want to buy, I know how much they retail for officially, i also know the grey market prices that they are going for in Chennai and Mumbai.. so i'll look at +/- 2 or 3% of those prices?

That said, if you have any quick tips for a 1st time buyer, and/or some trusted dealers there, please do tell me.
 
well some of good shops are located in sukh sagar mall in gandhinagar/majestic.
the building is located next to the original national market.

the scope of bargaining is limited since the prices are already low,one can expect to bargain about Rs500 to Rs1000 for a product priced below 50k.
since their is lot of demand bargaining can be tough.
 
Well, You can bargain to the core, may be u are best in it.

Will you come to know if that awesome looking Handycam you are bargaining for has internal parts changed ? Outside everything looks same but inside Original SONY chip might be replaced with cheap china item. Wish god gives us X Ray eyes to see that :p

thats were trusted dealer comes in.
 
Praks said:
Will you come to know if that awesome looking Handycam you are bargaining for has internal parts changed ? Outside everything looks same but inside Original SONY chip might be replaced with cheap china item. Wish god gives us X Ray eyes to see that :p
Click to expand...

Are you serious ?

This particular example you mentioned has zero gain for the seller. What's he going to do sell individual electronic components on the street ?

Try again :)

The only risk he faces is if the stuff he buys conks out the day after he has nothing. There is no warranty so its a writeoff.

I suspect he could get things cheaper in Chennai tho as the suply might be larger, they have a port etc. Anyway OP do let us know what you think of the grey market here compared to home :)
 
These are some awesome inputs :)

I'm not so concerned really about parts inside being replaced - it's probably more headache for the guy doing it, considering:

1. What does he do with that original part?

2. How is some china guy going to replicate exactly everything that the original chip does. (ever saw a Chinese phone looking exactly like a Nokia AND doing everything that the Nokia does?)

The warranty thing is what concerns me the most. Of course, the product wont be a write-off, it could still probably be repaired somewhere else, just that it would cost a bunch :(

So who are these trusted dealers out there? Any particular shops i need to look out for? I'm planning a trip there this weekend, just to get an idea of the price difference on products worth around 50k.

@blr-p: this is my home!! just that i've never had the need to visit them places!
 
well i buy from a guy called manish located in sukh sagar mall .ground floor towards to the left.i have bought many lcds,cameras,mobile phones,cordless phones,shavers etc from him,on one occasion i had bought a O2 version of K jam,the keyboards buttons used to not work properly,i promptly returned it after a month of use he took it back for about 19k Rs1000 less then the price i bought it for,which is acceptable considering 1 month of use,off course the condition was as good as new,with virtually no scratches .

regarding lcds most are sealed pieces,they sell mainly sony lcds ,mostly imported the previous day,like i have said before they sell like hot cakes.
 
@blr_p

I am 100 % sure coz I have seen lots of people doing it there.

Well Take out original CHIP & sell to those Sony world service centers backdoor, It will fetch good amount of money. I have even seen people buying empty processor boxes for 500 Rs.. Now you can imagine till what level you can be cheated.

As adder said, go ahead with someone whom you know.
 
Praks said:
@blr_p
I am 100 % sure coz I have seen lots of people doing it there.
Click to expand...
Which kinds of products were they doing this with ?

It makes no sense whatsoever with tvs, cameras etc. or anything with complicated electronics for that matter.

Do you realise if your LCD TV has a problem it requires an entire board to be replaced(!) Even if its one small component, they don't bother to find the problem, just replace the whole section. That to by qualified technical crew not your back alley grey market salesmen.

...the days of replacing components one by one is over.

Praks said:
Well Take out original CHIP & sell to those Sony world service centers backdoor, It will fetch good amount of money.
Click to expand...
What you prolly saw was scavenging, they have something that does not work in the first place and are trying to get what they can out of it. Spare parts.

The best they can do is take from one product and replace with one of the same, otherwise it ain't gonna work ;)

Praks said:
I have even seen people buying empty processor boxes for 500 Rs..
Click to expand...
Processor box ?

Praks said:
Now you can imagine till what level you can be cheated.
Click to expand...
Ah, well this is the connection you make that does not make sense. You have seen scavenging and then connecting to say they are mixing stuff in the background.

What is the gain in all of this ? If these guys sell junk then they will have problems with the public, they dont want that now do they ;)

Unless you can explain in more detail, what you are saying actually makes for excellent FUD, most likely spread by ppl that have the most to lose by the grey market -- ie legitimate retailers.

Going grey market is not for everybody, it requires a good knowledge of the product at hand, its likely problems and an aptitude to spot them and finally an appetite for risk. You better know what street prices are for any products you are interested in otherwise you WILL get robbed.
 
Bro, I dont get anything in giving warning about this.

I am sharing it just to make people aware of this. I know they dont open HUGE things like LCDs & dont mess around.

They do it easily for Handycam, Digicam, Mobiles, DVD & BD players & all other small kinds stuffs.

I have no idea what they do with purchasing processor box but I have seen people asking it for 500 Rs.

Grey market works on trust, so if you have someone you trust then go ahead & buy it. bcoz there once you take the stuff next day they will ask Who are you ?
 
Excellent info again.. i'm not planning to purchase anything that can be easily opened up and stuff.

@adder: thanks for that particular contact, i'll try and source him when i reach there.

@blr_p & praks: both of you have your points.. i personally tend to agree with blr_p on the part replacement debate, but the warning is taken and will be heeded.

I'll put an update after this weekend, when i'll hopefully be able to make that trip.
 
I think what Praks is referring to is no label products entering the country with less or no duty and then being made to look like branded products. This may apply for certain types of products but its limited to that.

So you see here nobody in the grey market is swapping components out there are already fakes being manufactured in China and just being relabelled here. I still think it would be dificult to pull off with handicams or digicams, even phones unless they are very basic in functionality.

Mem cards sure, lots of fakes, batteries, simpler products.

The best indicator is how much the asking price varies from the official price, if its very large chances are higher that a fake is involved. You expect to pay 20-30% less in the greay market anyway, so anything more might be suspicious.
 
I for one have yet to see a fake lcd,handycam,digital cameras.

The fakes i have seen are batteries,memory cards.some of cameras are marked as sony but sony have never made a camera like that,i.e its a crappy chinese cameras with digital zoom and funny looking sony symbol,MP3 playes badged as SONY ,the person buying that has to to be really ignorant to buy that,i know a guy who bought a fake MP3 player knowing well that it was a fake chinese player badged as sony,:S he reasons that is friends back in town won't know that its fake.
 
@ALL

Thank you for sharing details.

@blr_p

Pls share details of people you know in Bangalore Grey market, It will be helpful to all.
 
Buying stuff with no warranty is what makes me uncomfortable.

You could say if the product falls from my hands the same applies too :)
 
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