So, with recent price corrections how many new owners of GS3s are there out there now?

There have been a number of muted/stealth gloats hidden among other postings... time to step forward and announce your new toy!

What is the current price, anyway?

US Prices have been down to $4250 USD, while up here we're still paying the full price of $7500 CAD from the "official" Canadian distributors and $7000 CAD if you shop around.

Dave wrote:US Prices have been down to $4250 USD, while up here we're still paying the full price of $7500 CAD from the "official" Canadian distributors and $7000 CAD if you shop around.

There are better Canadian deals out there if you look around. One potenial buyer posted on the S1 forum today that he was quoted $5400 Can for a new GS3.

My understanding based on talking to a couple of US vendors before buying my GS3 was that, while it had been in the plans to drop Franke as the US distributor and use La Marzocco USA for some time, Franke ended up pushing the completion of the deal somewhat sooner than expected. Part of that deal was that LM USA had to buy back Franke's stock of La Marzocco machines, for which it had to get a very substantial loan on short notice. Now they're having quite a sale, as I understand it, to help pay back that loan in the quickest fashion possible. How ironic that they're finally selling for the price that GS3 waiting list members were originally quoted (~$4500 US), several years after the fact! That would seem to explain why a few of them have taken LM up at last.

I've had mine since Monday evening. There's a lot to love and a lot to be irritated by, but I am really happy with it. I don't think I'd pay much more than I did, all things considered, but wow. These are a lot of fun, and really exceptionally easy to work with.


Really tasty shots of Paradise Espresso Classico, nice bass notes and really bright herbal/spice.

Does it count if you PLAN to be an owner?

Congrats on the new GS/3 man!

And, from what Ive heard, Nicholas is correct. On monday I got to speak with Chris from Chris' Coffee, and thats the same thing he told me. The current sale from a few distributors is from LM usa having to liquidate the stock which Franke had. They dropped LM importing about 6 months early, basically forcing LM to sell the current stock of GS/3s asap. They had planned to be opening their own distribution center/warehouse anyway, but they had to do it sooner then planned. After the current stock is sold, of course they'll be importing more machines, but they wont be sold at the current price. But, as far as I know, they wont be going back up to the list price of 7500. As I and many others always say.. Call before you buy and see what you can your preferred vendor can work out. Unfortunately for me, I wont be able to take advantage of the current awesome price, but I am relieved to hear that the price isnt going to jump back up to 7500, when its my time to buy. As awesome as a machine the GS/3 is, for the targeted market, I personally think 7500 is too high. But I bet so do a lot of people.

Although, before I knew that the GS/3 was being sold for anything less then 7500, more then a few times I said to myself.. "well.. Why not a speedster, if Im spending in that ballpark anyway". Because the speedster is only slightly higher then the LIST price of the GS/3.

I am still perfectly happy with my A3. My GS3 lust was short lived but congrats to those that have made the jump. The only machine I still have eyes for is the Speedster or Mirage but dont see that ever happening.

Yeah that speedster is quite a machine, and Mark Princes' Flikr stream makes it even easier not owning one!

On the Mirage(s), is it an E-61? Looks like one, but thought Id ask since ive wondered for a while. And some of the earlier versions looked to have LM style saturated groups, like the speedster has now. ON the Kees website, the picture of the early speedster with the Paddle is awesome. As much as I said I would choose volumetric over paddle if it didnt offer volu. as well, I Still think the paddle groups are just awesome. And If I had a choice between a GS/3 Volumetric, and a GS/2, obv paddle group.. Itd be the GS/2, without a doubt.

I believe the Mirage uses an e-61, but tweaked a bit. He offers them with or without pre-infusion chambers, better thermosyphon design etc. Previously, ie before the Mirage line, he produced Mistrals which were saturated groups using predominately LM parts. LM now has the rights to the Mistral on a special order basis. The original paddle Speedster used a LM group. The new Speedster is saturated with a Kees designed group.

I think thats correct, off the top of my head anyway.

I agree, the paddle is very cool. I have come to really like the 'shifter', but that wasn't the case initially.

Mostly correct as far as I know except on sequencing. Back in the day, pre-LM, Kees produced both Mirages and Mistrals at the same time.