SingAstro

Hi all,

Can anyone advise me whether is it safe in terms of delivery and lost/broken to order a celestron scope from Amazon.com?

Thks

alan tan wrote:Hi all,

Can anyone advise me whether is it safe in terms of delivery and lost/broken to order a celestron scope from Amazon.com?

Thks

should be quite safe. However, they may not ship direct to SGP, so may have to go through Vpost.

It won't be covered by warranty either as you did not buy from the local dealer (astroscientific). As for amazon itself, I believe if Amazon is the merchant (i.e. not from a Marketplace Partner), returns are accepted within 30days but the shipping can kill.
Do take note that for computerized scopes, there is a small but nonetheless significant failure rate out of the box, if the impression I get from the US forums is correct.
However, yes, it will be significantly cheaper than buying direct in Singapore, even after shipping.
Other than vpost, I suggest you look at other sites such as www.comgateway.com (cheaper)
If your package is very bulky (likely to be), www.myus.com is even cheaper but requires a subscription.
Also consider other big astronomy merchants such as www.optcorp.com and www.astronomics.com They are run by astronomers so they tend to be pretty passionate and helpful about their equipment.
Finally, if you don't mind used, check out the classifieds on www.cloudynights.com or www.astromart.com The stuff is usually significantly cheaper than new, usually very well cared for but of course, buyer beware. As a reference, 100% of my telescopes and major equipment (including a Sphinx SXD) are bought second hand.

even if buying in the US, you will suffer a 15% to 40% depreciation if you buy new and sell it.

so it's far better to buy used.

(the 15% depreciation is for Astro-Physics gear; if your equipment is not of that level, expect even bloodier depreciation)

Maybe u wanna change the topic to wtb with scope model.
U might be surprised and save some cost.

Hi,

Yes, looking to buy a Celestron SE.

Rdgs

someone is selling a nexstar 8SE for $1100... locally.

Just to exchange notes, I shipped an 8SE here using amazon.

http://jeffyen.blogspot.sg/2012/03/cele ... rised.html