About To Buy a TX1 - Questions!

[Whits]

Hi,

I've been looking at it for a while, and about to finally buy it for a trip that I am taking in the near future. I just had a few questions about it before I purchased it.

First of all, is there any reason that I shouldn't buy it from one of these sites?
http://www.preferredphoto.com/product.asp?id=cnpstx1
http://www.prestigecamera.com/product.asp?id=cnpstx1

They are selling for nearly $200 less than most other sites. Kind of a red flag for me, anything that I should be worried about?

Secondly, what kind of memory card should I get? I would probably go 4-8gb, but which kind would give me the best value/quality?

And finally, any reason why I shouldn't buy it? Any advice, comments, or concerns would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Ryan

[lantern]

They are the same place. Both sites list a base at....

337 East 89th Street
Brooklyn NY 11236


They both lead you to hard times and heartache....don't do it!!! As soon as I see a Brooklyn address I get worried. Too many problems to list here.

Nothing to see here....move along.(officer Barbrady voice)

[Whits]

They both also list it as "Import Model."

Any ideas?

I am thinking it must mean imported Japanese version or something. Could it be that much different?

It's hard to not take the one 200 dollars cheaper... ugh

[Andrizzle]

Yeah, don't buy from them. If you look around this site, there are all kinds of horror stories from similar websites, most out of New York. As a matter of fact, it's addressed by Jeff's FAQs (http://www.dcresource.com/faq/faq.html):


When shopping for a digital camera, I noticed large price discrepancies between various online shops. Why is this?

You know the old saying "if it's too good to be true, then it probably is"? That's very important to remember when shopping online for a digital camera. Let's say you're browsing the price listings for a PowerShot G3. While most everyone else is selling them for $799, you see one place selling it for $599. You order them and here's what probably happens next:

* They call you and try to hard sell you accessories like filters, batteries, and carrying cases
* They try to charge you extra for things that should have been in the box, like the software and cables
* They will tell you that the camera you've bought is "gray market", meaning not sold in the US, and not covered under the manufacturer's warranty

At this point, if you refuse to buy it, they will either hang up on you, or tell you that the camera is out of stock.

This may sound funny, but 9 times out of 10, these resellers will be located in New York City. They lure you in with a low price and then charge you $100 for shipping, or $200 more for the US model. My advice: read ratings of the merchants on PriceGrabber and Reseller Ratings, before you get burned!

Now you know what they mean by "import model" ;)

[Andrizzle]

For me, when I'm thinking about spending that kind of money, especially on a piece of technology like that, I want to be absolutely confident in the vendor. I see quite a few red flags with this site; it is based out of New York, you've found two websites that appear to be for a single company (if they were on the up and up, why would they do that), the price is much lower than reputable places for a relatively new camera, and they pretty much have it labeled as gray market camera.

If you want to go ahead and order from them that is your choice, but after reading countless stories about exactly this kind of thing, I would advice against it.

Edit: I followed the link Jeff gave in the FAQ and pulled up their reviews. Each site has a one star review average:
Prestige Camera (http://dcresource.pricegrabber.com/rating_getreview.php/retid=3670)
Preferred Photo (http://dcresource.pricegrabber.com/rating_getreview.php/retid=4482)

[lantern]

I also found "hard sell" and switch claims for both on the net. I hope this is enough to keep you away from them.


I know it's tempting to get the best/lowest deal possible on a camera, but sometimes there is just no such thing. My strong advice is to either pay the extra or wait till the camera is out long enough to have a real price drop.

[Whits]

Thanks for the advice guys. I ended up sucking it up and dishing out the full price for it.