Sceptic about certain websites selling Nikon D series DSLRs

Hey, I've been actively searching for what DSLR to purchase for myself. My budget is very limited, and when I see website with prices well bellow reputable websites, I am tempted to jump on it.

Right now I'm looking at a getting either a D80 or a D200. I found this site:
http://www.ccicameracity.com/nikond200.html
http://www.ccicameracity.com/nikon-d80.html

The website says it's items are all brand new. (however that price is after a few hundred dollars in rebates)
And yes, I want the body only for now.

Is this all legit? Anyone order from this site before and have some feedback? Just at prices half of what others have it for, I have to question it.

Any advice or help is appreciated, Thanks!

noboe120 said:

Right now I'm looking at a getting either a D80 or a D200. I found
this site:
http://www.ccicameracity.com/nikond200.html
http://www.ccicameracity.com/nikon-d80.html

Click to expand...

If the price is way, way below known good sites such as Adorama or B&H, then either (1) the camera is gray market and Nikon won't honor the warranty or (2) it's a scam and they will call you and try to sell you expensive extras and when you refuse they will tell you that the camera is out of stock.

There are a few sites that do have excellent prices and won't scam you. I've used http://www.buydig.com often with no problems.

noboe120 said:

Is this all legit? Anyone order from this site before and have some
feedback? Just at prices half of what others have it for, I have to
question it.

Any advice or help is appreciated, Thanks!

Click to expand...

If you have to question it, don't waste your time or money. If it's not anywhere near the B&H price, it's likely a scam of some sort.

Paul

Take advice from some who just had a bad experience with an online reseller....go to resellerratings.com and read the reviews of the site. Just a quick look confirms they are bait & switch just like the place I tried to buy from and am now disputing the 15% restocking fee they charged me after promising me that the items were not grey market.

I just bought a D200 from B&H...and I highly recommend them for service and price. Most of the Brooklyn NY camera companies are not to be trusted.

some of the other "Brooklyn" storefronts will be glad to sell you a "factory fresh" camera body.
oh. You want a BATTERY with that? That's extra.

oh. You want a Battery CHARGER, TOO? We have one here for only $100.00 more.....

The best "low price" reputable dealers will be slightly lower than the higher ones, but not by many hundreds.

You will find that there are many satisfied customers around here for:
Buydig.com
B&H photo video
Adorama
KEH (out of Atlanta, mostly used but some new)
A couple of West coast brick & mortar stores.

Stay away from Brooklyn, NY and a few of their Orange County CA followers.

bill
web52

This one claims (heh, and yes they are located in good ol' Brooklyn) that:

"This item is brand new, comes complete with all manufacturers supplied accessories & carries a one year limited warranty." and is $1170 for the D200 body. Should I still be skeptic?

( http://www.bwayphoto.com/product.asp?item=nkd200&l=ShopCartUSA&sale_ref_key=mTE4oJUwmJc0nDA6mDOzmJO2nDA0oTE4 )

The sites you all suggested all have the D200 (Body Only) for right around $1300. As I'm sure you can understand, the less I spend on the body, the more I can spend on the lenses.

I'm very ready to make a purchase, but I want to be confident in my purchase when I'm entering my credit card information...

As already suggested, have you checked the reseller ratings for this company you are looking at buying from? If not, it's definately worth a few minutes of your time to do so.

If I were spending $1K+ on something online, I would feel better about buying from a reputable, based on the experiences of others who bought, online merchant.

From doing a little digging, it looks like it's about $1340 ish for a D200 from a online store that I would feel comfortable buying from.

My 2 cents.
--
http://www.scottishwallet.com

Resellers - cci rating 0.03 out of 10.00
--
wfjw

noboe120 said:

This one claims (heh, and yes they are located in good ol'
Brooklyn) that:
"This item is brand new, comes complete with all manufacturers
supplied accessories & carries a one year limited warranty." and is
$1170 for the D200 body. Should I still be skeptic?

( http://www.bwayphoto.com/product.asp?item=nkd200&l=ShopCartUSA&sale_ref_key=mTE4oJUwmJc0nDA6mDOzmJO2nDA0oTE4 )

The sites you all suggested all have the D200 (Body Only) for right
around $1300. As I'm sure you can understand, the less I spend on
the body, the more I can spend on the lenses.

Click to expand...

The less you spend on the body, the more you can spend on aspirin and antacids.

"They say the neon lights are bright on broadway".

Broadway photo, aka A&M Photoworld, aka Regal Camera, aka Prestige Camera, aka Preferred Photo, aka Digital Liquidators. So many names, so little time. And with a lifetime rating of 0.8 out of 10 what could possibly go wrong? Just check out the reviews...

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/Broadway_Photo

If you decide to buy there, be sure and leave us an update on what actually wound up being liquidated.

If thats not enough to boost ones confidence, here's a pic of their megastore...

http://donwiss.com/pictures/BrooklynStores/h0006.htm

Caveat emptor!

--
'Here, look at the monkey. Look at the silly monkey!'

Tom Young
http://www.pbase.com/tyoung/

You said it yourself: "well below reputable websites..."
How can you think this is legit???

Well I guess I will not be buying from them!

Tomorrow I plan on checking out some local retailers and see their prices. For something of this nature, I prefer to have a place I can go back to for help/returns. If I find the prices are much higher over some of the good online stores, I'll just suck it up and order online.

Again, thanks for the help.

I've seen what seems like a thousand of these posts.

"Hey, is this too good to be true?"
"This is a great price, has anyone used these guys?"
"I really like this price but are these guys for real?"

Why are people so easily suckered by these scam artists? Should someone even need to ask when the price is nearly half of a reputable dealer's price? Seemingly normal people lose an amount of common sense in proportion to the size of the discount.

Sorry for the rant, but it frustrates me that these business exist and frustrates me even more that people would buy or consider buying anything at all from them.

LOL,
Roy

I'm just very cheap XD

I have to echo the rant against the "are these guys any good?" type posts. Universally, these get shot down with reccomendations to use B&H or someone else who IS legit.

Excusing yourself as cheap is no excuse; it's a simple lack of common sense.

I keep seeing Amazon.com having good prices on cameras/lenses. I have never bought anything yet with them, so I can't recommend them because of this but perhaps someone else has more info on this.

Maby alresdy posted....

http://www.resellerratings.com/store/CCI_Camera_City

Regards
Ed

I stopped by my local Wolf Camera store (owned by Ritz i believe). They were very nice there, and knew what they were talking about. They had the D80 body for $999. While that is around what most merchants online have it for, I could save 40 bucks on buydig.com (which has a very high customer ratting as I'm sure most of you know) That 40 dollars is the difference between a better lens however. So I'm kind of stuck between ordering local and ordering from a reliable store online.

If you purchase the camera this week Wolf is giving a $50 in-store gift card - apply it toward a second lens, maybe?
Same net price and peace of mind of a local dealer....

I have a couple of thoughts on this.

There are many unnoticed advantages to buying something locally. You have a door to knock on when there's a problem and, of course, the money (at least some of it in the case of ritz/wolfe) stays local. Even more so with a local independent shop.

Second, keeping a store open locally so you can touch and feel the goods, as well as get advice is only possible if people purchase locally. How much is there advice worth? How would you like it if people pumped you for your professional knowledge and then went elsewhere to buy the goods and service you sell? IMO it is darned inconsiderate and I'd classify you as a cheapskate to save $40 on a $1,000 purchase.

Sure, you could make the economic argument that efficiency wins and if they can't compete they should get out. A little like the local farmer versus the corporate farms. Unfortunately, the owner of the corporate farm is no longer tied to the community I live in and doesn't give a rip if the school, police, grandmother's shop, little league, art guild, (you fill in the blank with the local cause of your choice) are healthy and contribute to a vibrant community. There are some good corporate citizens to be sure, but is BuyDig one of them? How many of them does BuyDig support in your community? It won't be long before we're all living in some Orwellian dream at this rate.

My advise, buy locally unless the prices are completely outrageous or their service is terrible. 4% doesn't seem outrageous and you've already said the service was pretty good.

LOL,
Roy