Went to Bestbuy to get a Nikon D200. It's discontinued!! Anyone know why?

I was so excited. I drove down to best buy with a grin on my face. When I got there, they told me that the Nikon D200 was discontinued even though I had saw (and played with) it a week earlier. They still sell the other Nikon DSLR cameras, but not the D200.

Anyone know why? The salesmen did not.

D200's are hard to find right now. Been hearing from varius Best buy employees that Best Buy is slowly dropping Nikon and only gonna carry the D40(x)'s since they would sell better than the D200 and even the D80. All the BB around here its lucky to even see a Nikon lens in the display case. Seems like most the big box places are doing the same. The local BB has a Canon 30D and they said thats the last one they'll carry. Once all the 30D's they have sell out, the only way you'll get one from them is by web-order. Pretty funny if you ask me. They'll have 10 to 15 $8-10K 65" plasma tv's in back but dont want to carry slightly higher end dslrs.

Strange, Rob, at the best buys here I consistently see Nikon and Canon DSLRs on sale- D200's, D80s, 30Ds, even 5D's!

Probably just this area. I dont take what any of the salespeople in those stores anyways as teh gospel. Its just what they told me. Most the time they havent the clue anyways. Sometimes its fun just to eaves drop on them talking with a customer and get a good laugh.

I've noticed that the big box electronics stores (circuit city and bbuy, then throw in officemax, office depot, and staples as second-tier competitors) have recently tried to carry products that are "exclusive" to them in larger metropolitan regions (or perhaps even nationwide?). I think it's a way of moving away from price matching.