Better Prices: Amazon.com Vs B&h In-store

[heraldo]

Guys I've been told that if you go to the B&H camera store y NY you get better deals than amazon.com or even better deals than B&H website.

Is that true? I'm trying to get my new NIKON D300S ($1500 at amazon.com, free shipping)

There is a Tax issue as well.. I guess that IN STORE you gotta pay taxes. Online you do not.

Any thoughts?

[Grandpaw]

Guys I've been told that if you go to the B&H camera store y NY you get better deals than amazon.com or even better deals than B&H website.

Is that true? I'm trying to get my new NIKON D300S ($1500 at amazon.com, free shipping)

There is a Tax issue as well.. I guess that IN STORE you gotta pay taxes. Online you do not.

Any thoughts?

I have ordered from a store in a state that I do not live in and they didn't charge tax but if I went over and picked it up they would have had to charge tax. I would suggest calling them and find out what they can do, Jeff

[henryp]

Guys I've been told that if you go to the B&H camera store y NY you get better deals than amazon.com or even better deals than B&H website.

Is that true? I'm trying to get my new NIKON D300S ($1500 at amazon.com, free shipping)

There is a Tax issue as well.. I guess that IN STORE you gotta pay taxes. Online you do not.

Any thoughts?

I cannot say on an item by item basis if we're more or less expensive than amazon. I do know that the price you pay here is the same whether you buy online, by phone or in our store. Caveats: Some items have MAP prices - prices we must use for advertising. In many cases those items have a lower selling price and when you're online if we say, "add to cart for lower price," or "click here and we'll email the real selling price," you have to follow this.

Regarding sales tax. if you buy in our store and take your goodies with you, we have to colect NYC sales tax. If we ship your order anywhere within NY state, we have to collect sales tax at the tax rate of the destination. If we ship to an address outside NY state, we do not add tax, but your state may expect you to declare and pay their Use tax.

Hope this helps. BTW, our price for the Nikon D300S is the same as the price quoted by the OP.

[Grandpaw]

I cannot say on an item by item basis if we're more or less expensive than amazon. I do know that the price you pay here is the same whether you buy online, by phone or in our store. Caveats: Some items have MAP prices - prices we must use for advertising. In many cases those items have a lower selling price and when you're online if we say, "add to cart for lower price," or "click here and we'll email the real selling price," you have to follow this.

Regarding sales tax. if you buy in our store and take your goodies with you, we have to colect NYC sales tax. If we ship your order anywhere within NY state, we have to collect sales tax at the tax rate of the destination. If we ship to an address outside NY state, we do not add tax, but your state may expect you to declare and pay their Use tax.

Hope this helps. BTW, our price for the Nikon D300S is the same as the price quoted by the OP.

Thanks Henry for stopping by and giving us this information, it is always good to hear from you, Jeff

[orange999]

I have bought camera gear through Amazon one time. No problem.

[obadiahlee]

just gotta do research on the prices.. =0) finding the best deals are always worth it and with those two places you can't really go wrong eh?

[xSnoopy]

Guys I've been told that if you go to the B&H camera store y NY you get better deals than amazon.com or even better deals than B&H website.

Is that true? I'm trying to get my new NIKON D300S ($1500 at amazon.com, free shipping)

There is a Tax issue as well.. I guess that IN STORE you gotta pay taxes. Online you do not.

Any thoughts?

What about other B&H stores around the states?

[henryp]

What about other B&H stores around the states?

There's only one B&H store -- 9th Ave and W 34th St in Manhattan.

[The Photo Man]

This is just my .02 cents worth but you have to weight all the pluses and minuses before making this kind of decision. I have bought from B&H and also from Amazon but all other things being equal I will buy from B&H before I buy from Amazon for a couple of reasons.

B&H has been around for a long time and they work hard to get and keep customers. With Amazon you really never know who you are buying from and you have to be very careful with this. There are sellers who post high dollar gear on Amazon and have only been around for a week.

Pricing with B&H is a lot more realistic. I see used stuff on Amazon and the sellers are asking just about full retail for it and amazingly getting it (just proves that there are a lot of stupid people in this world that have money to throw away).

I will give away $25 to $30 dollars just for the piece of mind that comes from knowing I am dealing with a store that is going to be around day after day.

[usuusu]

Thank you David. I bought so far only from Amazon, but I'll try B&H next time

[jesab]

Caveats: Some items have MAP prices - prices we must use for advertising. In many cases those items have a lower selling price and when you're online if we say, "add to cart for lower price," or "click here and we'll email the real selling price," you have to follow this.

I did not know this. it is very interesting. I assume selling at a lower price jeopardizes your relationship with the manufacturing company. This might be a stupid question, but what if someone was to sell on craigslist or ebay. could they get around this set price that way?

[henryp]

I assume selling at a lower price jeopardizes your relationship with the manufacturing company. This might be a stupid question, but what if someone was to sell on craigslist or ebay. could they get around this set price that way?

If an authorized retailer is caught by the authorized US distributor violating their MAP, the penalties can be severe. Since B&H doesn't sell on eBay or Craigslist I'm not sure of the legalities.