Question about buying a camera at non-usual places

[BlueJazz]

Was looking at the Sony A7rII. Noticed that just about everybody's price is $3,198.00, except a few places such as this>

I KNOW I'm missing something here. Excuse my ignorance.

http://www.njaccessory.com/store/product_info.php?csv=gg&products_id=225238

[NV Whino]

1. It's body only

No lens. No charger. Bare bones.

[BlueJazz]

2. That's generally the way it comes. Adorama and B&H add a few little trinkets.

[alfredo]

3. I notice Amazon has an OK price. I would check up on the seller before buying.

[Adsos Letter]

4. I skimmed the page and didn't see anything about warranty.

I admit up front that I don't know anything about Sony's policy on warranties for gray market products, and I don't know that this $400 difference is enough to indicate that it might be gray market. That would be my initial concern.

EDIT: I just looked at the one on Amazon that I think alfredo was talking about, and the prices look just about the same.

[Stevenmarc]

5. If it sounds too good......

Last edited Tue Jan 19, 2016, 04:31 AM - Edit history (1)

Generally when you find a site like this you are looking at grey market items or you are going to get bait and switched or they are going to upsell everything that you should have gotten in the box to you, so you'll be buying the battery and charger.

Quite frankly the crappy, dated website was a bit of a turnoff right from the start. I particularly love the About Us page and its use of stock photos, the group shot looks like casual Friday at a pharmaceutical company.

[Major Nikon]

6. For major brands you can check to see if the retailer is an authorized dealer

http://www.sony.com/retailers

I don't see this retailer on the list. If you don't buy from an authorized dealer, you may have warranty issues if you ever need to send your camera in for repairs. Issues as in Sony may not honor your warranty at all.

[BlueJazz]

7. Well, that kills THAT deal! Thanks much!

[groundloop]

8. Yep, that's one method manufacturers use to keep the prices up

IMO a warranty should be honored no matter which middlemen the product was sold through. But unfortunately that's not the case and we're stuck choosing between a better price or a warranty.

With that being said, retailers such as Adorama and B&H have very good reputations for customer service and usually have fairly decent prices as well.

[Major Nikon]

9. I'm not sure about Sony

But most manufacturers will honor the warranty in the country of origin regardless of whether it comes from an authorized retailer. However, the problem is when you don't buy from an authorized retailer, you can't be sure they aren't selling you a grey market product originally sold in another country and redistributed back to the US. So the problem is you might have to find a warranty service center half way around the world to repair your camera.

I don't mind buying a grey market product so long as I know what I'm getting into. Sometimes the discount is worth the chance of not needing warranty service, but for only about a 10% markdown, I would just as soon buy from an authorized source.