There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
For those who might wander what happened, here's a short preview:
After the drop was created successfully and the order was created successfully and the status advanced till the placement at the vendor, the next update I had was a mail from Massdrop informing me that "The vendor confirmed the available quantities. We were later informed that all units had been prepared for shipment and would be en route to our warehouse shortly. Soon after, we learned that this information was actually for a similar order and the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lenses were still not ready. We have decided the best course of action for the community is to cancel the drop and issue full refunds to each member."
I was actually looking forward for this product and after about 2 weeks of waiting for this along maybe with the gift for bringing enough friends to the Massdrop community. VERY disappointing.
The only way I will be buying anything from canon internationally is if I'm going to receive some giftcard or something similar with a substantial discount.