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Where and How to Buy

 Where to go?

Finding a store that had good prices, reliability and good customer services is not that easy, in particular if it is the first time that you buy online. Where to go?

If you live in the U.S., I highly recommend B&H Photo Video (www.bhphotovideo.com). B&H is one of the largest stores of new and used photo and video equipment: if you are searching something, you will find it there.
The prices are in line with the other major stores, and generally they are the lowest that you can find in 

a reputable store. I think that the most important things, for a store, are honesty and reliability, and B&H has both of them: visit their excellent website to find all the information that you want to know about company profile, pricing policies, delivery, return policies and warranty.

 
Rebates

A "rebate" is essentially a small cashback offered by the store of the manufacturer. To get the rebate, you have to send a coupon (included with the item you bought) to the store/manufacturer, and they with send you the amount of money specified by the promotion. Wouldn't it be simpler to lower the price?
Yes, of course, but many manufacturers prefer to use rebates because they want to promote a product only in a particular area; for example, the rebate may be available only for U.S. residents.

 

 Warranty : Manufacturer VS Imported

There are two main types of warranty; the "Local Manufacturer" warranty (e.g. Canon USA Warranty, Nikon USA Warranty) or the "Store" warranty (e.g. B&H warranty). What are the differences?

The items with Manufacturer warranty are imported in the U.S. by the official

manufacturer; if you have a problem you have to send the product to the manufacturer. The prices are in line with the local Manufacturer's policies, and sometimes they can be much higher than the prices of the same products in another country, without any reason.

The items with Store warranty (also known as "grey market" or "direct import" items) are imported in the U.S. by the store itself; if you have a problem you have to send the product to the store. The prices are usually lower than the prices of the products with Manufacturer warranty.

Which one to choose? You have to consider the difference of price (pay attention to possible rebates); if there is a substantial difference, I'd suggest to buy the imported (cheaper) item.
You can find more information on the B&H "Grey Market Products" page, or clicking on the "Imported" link near the product name.

  
How to avoid scams

There is a golden rule: if a price looks too good, it is likely to be a scam.

There is plenty of fraudulent websites that advertise every kind of stuff (camera, lenses, etc.) at fantastic prices. If you order something from them, in the best case you'll lose the money that your paid; in the worst you will lose a lot more money and you will have a lot of troubles. I don't want to scare anyone from buying online, but please pay attention to the place where you buy from, otherwise you will be ripped off by these felons.

The best way to avoid scams is to check the store on the ResellerRatings website (www.resellerratings.com). RR has a database of thousand of stores with the opinions of those who bought from there; if a store is a scammer, you will see a lot of negative feedback. Of course, there is the possibility that a reseller hadn't been rated yet, and some comments might be misleading, but overall ResellerRatings is an excellent resource to discover if a store is honest or not.

Don't forget to add your buying experience, positive of negative, to ResellerRatings! Your opinion will help a lot of people :-)