The Electronics Market...

Time today to give mom and girls some bonding time, and hopefully reduce some of the stress and fear we saw yesterday. So I went along with a couple of other families to the Electronic Market area in Guangzhou.

We stopped at a multi-floor building, and it had dozens of individual stores (or stalls) on each floor.

Of course, I forgot my camera - DANGIT - just as Mr. Kelch did (he has the same model Canon EOS Digital Rebel). We both wanted to buy zoom lenses and his son wanted an uptraded Playstation.

I wound up with a Canon bag and Mr. Kelch got a 'twisty' tripod - you don't need a flat surface to use it, since it wraps around anything. The bag was under 10 bucks. The electronics (and lenses) were at or above US prices (Fry's, 42nd Street, Wolf Camera, etc.)

Interesting notes:

There were two stores that sold ham radio equipment! A store on 3rd level had Diamond antennas, Yaesu handi-talkies and a couple of base models. A vendor on the first floor had 'Standard' (Yaesu's other brand), Kenwood, and Icom handi-talkies - both Amateur 2m/70cm bands and GMRS. Prices were equivalent to non-competitive with US mail-order. Also sold were some Motorola GMRS talkies, as well as Chinese-make radios. Very interesting - if I'd only not forgotten my camera - DANGIT.

Glass Audio! Numerous stores sold Tube HiFi equipment! There were numerous high-end audio stores - quiet, wood-paneled and with cushy listening areas. No need to ask prices here - it'd be more than I'd pay and of course, if I wanted tube audio, I'd build my own. They also sold some obvious (what I'd call) HiFi 'paraphernalia' like special power cables and speaker cables - no actual physics here - just thousand-dollar one meter power cords, etc., to make you feel like you've got the best. No actual performance over Radio Shack wire.

All prices were negotiable! There aren't any prices on ANYTHING! ...you ask, they give you an initial price; you balk, start to turn away - wait! - now it's lower, how's that? But I was only looking - wait! sir! how about this? Give them credit: they're good sellers here. We just weren't in a buying mood, I guess.

But I never found a good price on memory sticks, camera lenses or portable DVD players - these last are too 'new' there. In the US I got Leanne's DVD player for about US$80; here: about US$300. After all, I just ordered (from here! oh ye wondrous Internet! oh, series of tubes) from Woot.com a 2-gig microSD card for $5.99. Hard to beat that. And I know 8-gig Corsair Flash USB drives are going for around half what were quoted, so no deal.

Mr. Kelch and I opted out of new Canon auto-focus zoom lenses - prices were equivalent and if it stops focusing or jams back in USA, it won't be warrantied.

But my $10 camera bag, a twisty-tripod, and a few DVDs made the trip a fun adventure.

Mike.