"William F. Hagen" wrote in message
...
I think gentlemen, the bottom line here is: can products be purchased from
Maxima for less money than they can from AES or such?

I don;t know about that place, but here is a place for cell phones and
accessories that is much cheaper than the US prices, Several at work have
ordered from them directly from Hong Kong.

http://www.cellphoneshop.net/celphonbat.html

Probably nowhere near the markup as in the US stores.

Much of the imports in the US are through one or two major distribuiters
that get big quanities direct. Then they are sold to a smaller dealer in
maybe 20 to 100 lot quantieties and then maybe even to a smaller dealer in
lots of 5 or less. Each one has to make some profit. If you bypass them
the savings can be very big.
Now if it breaks you may be on your own, but you have saved enough to buy
new one .