Best NYC street shopping for cheap import photography stuff
March 20, 2013 9:13 AM Subscribe
I'm going to be in NYC soon. I buy a lot of import (read: straight from Shenzen) photography junk (stands, lens hoods, macro rails, Benro tripods/heads, LED lights, etc). All cheap and low-ish quality.
I buy this stuff on eBay and it is almost always coming from Shenzen or NYC/Jersey. If I wanted to see stores or kiosks full of it, where should I look?
Best answer: To be honest, I don't think you'll find anything in NYC like those tech markets in East Asia - Hong Kong's Sham Shui Po, Tokyo's Akihabara, Seoul's Jongro, Beijing's Zhongguancun, etc.
There's 269 Electronics on Canal St. for electronics, there's a few other places on Canal St. near the A/C train that might have some cheap general electronics import. Adorama and B&H will carry the usual mid-to-high-end stuff, but not the super cheap import photo stuff. For general wholesale/retail import, below 34th and above 23rd st on broadway has a lot of import markets, but not necessarily tech/camera-oriented.
I think all the importers have warehouses out in Queens, and ship from there to the US. Once I bought very specific a (knockoff but okay quality) camera hood off eBay two days before a trip; the eBay seller/company took pity on me and sent one of their employees and agreed to meet me in Jackson Heights one day. Perhaps you could try that out if you so wished, but I don't think there are any retail locations in NYC for that kind of stuff, sadly.
posted by suedehead at 10:01 AM on March 20, 2013 [1 favorite]
There's 269 Electronics on Canal St. for electronics, there's a few other places on Canal St. near the A/C train that might have some cheap general electronics import. Adorama and B&H will carry the usual mid-to-high-end stuff, but not the super cheap import photo stuff. For general wholesale/retail import, below 34th and above 23rd st on broadway has a lot of import markets, but not necessarily tech/camera-oriented.
I think all the importers have warehouses out in Queens, and ship from there to the US. Once I bought very specific a (knockoff but okay quality) camera hood off eBay two days before a trip; the eBay seller/company took pity on me and sent one of their employees and agreed to meet me in Jackson Heights one day. Perhaps you could try that out if you so wished, but I don't think there are any retail locations in NYC for that kind of stuff, sadly.
posted by suedehead at 10:01 AM on March 20, 2013 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: suedehead called it. Canal was disappointing. For people looking here in the future, 269 Electronics is a fairly legit electronics shop in the old RadioShack model - fuses, security cameras, SLA batteries, terminal strips, old electronics books, etc. If I lived in NYC it would be on my list of useful places for hardware hackers.
posted by fake at 9:01 AM on March 28, 2013
posted by fake at 9:01 AM on March 28, 2013
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posted by fake at 9:18 AM on March 20, 2013 [1 favorite]