Nikon Refurbished D810 Now $2,699 - I just bought mine at full price

[Mike D]

<p>$2,699 for a so called "refurbished" D810! Roberts Camera just sold 16 D810's at this price and is now sold out. In short, good for the lucky buyers and bad for me; the value of my D810 just went down up to $600. I question how there could be so many refurbished D810s available when the camera was just introduced. With such a cheap price for a flagship FF body, I wonder what this means for the rest of Nikon's FF line. </p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>Earlier Nikon USA had sent a bunch of D810 test samples out for reviews. For example, Ellis Vener received one. I got one a few week ago, but that particular sample happens to be defective with lots of memory card errors so that I quickly sent it back. And Photokina is now over so that there could be many demo units from those shows left over ....</p>

<p>I am not sure exactly where those refurbished D810 Roberts sold came from, but what I mentioned above are possibilities. (Hopefully no defective ones would be mixed into the refurbished stock, before they are properly fixed.)</p>

<p>Personally, I don't see the D810 being over $1000 more than the D800. If used D800 in good condition are going for around $2000 or maybe a bit lower, $2700 or so for a used D810 seems reasonable. Needless to say, the D750 with even better AF is putting pressure on D810 prices (and to some people, 24MP can be an advantage over 36MP; we certainly have reached a point that there are more than enough pixels).</p>

<p>Another issue to keep in mind is that the Japanese yen has come down a lot in the last few weeks. There is plenty of potential for rebates (or discounts) from Nikon in North America and Europe in the coming months, e.g. in November and December for the holiday season.</p>

<p> </p>

<P>

P.S. Michael, I added the word "refurbished" into your subject. Without that, I found the title very misleading.

</P>

[ilkka_nissila]

<p>If you buy a new car, and drive it out of the door, and decide to take it back after 5 meters of driving, it will have lost a substantial part of its value just because it is now used. Refurbished is similar, even though it is checked etc. it is still "used" one way or another. I suppose those could be former demo D810's, it would explain why there are so many. Whether they work like new is anyone's guess. I have bought demo lenses before (both Nikon and Mamiya) and they were all perfect from the point of view of practical use and results, as far as I could tell, but the viewfinder of my Mamiya 50mm wide angle had some surface defect (not in the optics) which suggest some rough handling at the store where it was used as demo.</p>

[elliot1]

<p>Keep in mind that these bodies DO NOT come with Nikon's 1 year new camera warranty, and not even a Nikon 90 day refurb warranty (not that there is anything wrong with Robert's 6 month warranty - they appear to be a reputable dealer for Nikon).</p>

<p>FWIW, new gray market D800s are selling for hundred's less than Robert's price (NOT that I am suggesting anyone in the US get one as you cannot get it services by Nikon in the USA).</p>

<p>And for those looking for a bargain, there will be more down the road.</p>

[dave_wilson1]

You have to read all the fine print, there's always a catch to go with the price.

[eric_arnold]

<p>no digital camera will ever appreciate in value once purchased. also, 16 refurbs isn't a lot of cameras, and a quick web search didnt come up with any more refurb 810s. so, i dont know that the value of a just-purchased 810 has dropped by $600 for all intents and purposes.</p>

[dan_south]

<p>Why bad for you? You bought a new camera, not a refurb. There's a reason why refurbished gear is cheaper - reliability.</p>

[ShunCheung]

<p>I am afraid that this thread is merely the result of a bit of over-reaction from the OP's part. Most of us do that occasionally. Please give Michael a break.</p>

<p>So Robert's had 16 refurbished D810 @ $2700 each. Those are gone pretty quickly. Before and after that, thousands of people have been paying the full price for the D810, just like Michael, and they continue to do so.</p>

<p>If this can make you feel better, let me tell you (again) a story from last year. Briefly Adorama had refurbished 80-400 G AF-S VR for $2000, $700 off the new price. I ordered one and then told <a href="/photodb/user?user_id=291498">Mary Doo</a> about that, so she also ordered one. Somehow Adorama's inventory tracking was a bit off so that while they accepted Mary's order over the web, they actually had no lens for Mary and subsequently cancelled her order. Needless to say, Mary was disappointed and ended up ordering a new one. Meanwhile, the refurbished lens I got was slightly defective. I spent two weeks testing it and ordered a new one with 2-day delivery to compare it against. Eventually I wasted a lot of time testing and spent some extra money on shipping two lenses. The end result was that I kept the new one and paid full price for it: http://www.photo.net/nikon-camera-forum/00c0Fc<br>

Meanwhile, Mary missed the refurb deal and paid approximately the same new price for her new one as I did, minus all the trouble I went through and the extra shipping cost.</p>

<p>Initially Mary was frustrated that she missed the refurb deal, but she was actually the "lucky" one between the two of us.</p>

<p>And back in 2007, Nikon introduced the D700 in July at $3000. By the time I bought mine in September, I got $200 off. Shortly after that, Canon introduced the 21MP 5D Mark II and starting in October, Nikon USA offered a $300 rebate for the new D700 so that people were paying around $2450 to $2500 for a new D700, not refurb. That represented a $500 price drop in merely three months.</p>

<p>However, there are always exceptions. I have reasons to believe that the Leica M Edition 60 will appreciate over time, but that is more a collector's item that looks like a camera: <a href="/nikon-camera-forum/00cpmz">Leica M Edition 60: 'Pure Photography' as the Df should have been done? </a></p>