I had quite the adventure today. I knew that the Canon 5D II would be showing up in stores today, and many of those who had pre-ordered got them on Friday. I however, was not so lucky to had pre-ordered it. In fact, by the time I heard about the tenative release date I couldnt even get on a notification list to hear when they were in stock. The Canon 5D II is sold out on every photography website until March, so what I am about to tell you might come in handy, but if you are serious about getting one, I would recommend you do this ASAP.

Since Friday I had been checking Ebay where they first started popping up. The suggested Retail Price on it is $2700. Someone had bought one on Ebay for $5,000!!! Be warned about Ebay, many people selling them on there are in other countries, meaning it is probably grey market. If you decide to do it on Ebay, be prepared to scour their feedback (they should be 100%, and have experience in Photography Items, otherwise avoid them.

I tried a few auctions, but kept on getting out bid in the last 2 minutes or so. It seems most of them are going for about $3500. Ive been saving my money ever since I heard about it, and I didnt really feel like paying an extra $800 for this thing, but if it was the only way I was willing to. I found someone who had a buy-it-now for $3500 and after asking him several questions, was right about to buy one when I got the bright idea to “Check Best Buy”.

So I call Best Buy up, and ask the guy if he had any Canon 5D II’s in stock. He said he didnt, but that he would check the “distribution center” to see if they had any there. He said there were three (!!!!), and I was surprised at this so I asked him again if he knew what I was talking about, and he said, “Ya, there are three of them there, if you come in and buy one, you can have it by the end of the week.” The kicker was they were selling these at the suggested retail value, I just could save about $800.

I jump in my car and head over. By the time I got there (10 minutes), someone had bought one of them, and literally in the process of making my order, another one sold. I got the last one.

So…if you are really REALLY serious about getting one, call around, apparently Best Buy has distribution centers where higher end products are held until someone orders them…or something. I guess a certain number of stores are allotted store models, and these are not the ones going for pre-orders. They are out there and you can find them if you look around.

They said I should get it Thursday or Friday. I CANNOT WAIT. I will break that thing down so quick and will probably be posting about it for a while.

Im happy. 🙂