Ricoh Refurbished
I was looking at Ricoh's refurb/open-box page here: https://us.ricoh-imaging.com/product-category/open-box-refurbished/
Some seem like good deals (the 100mm macro for $350, maybe) others not so much (the 18-135 for $350, it can be found used for ~$150-200 if memory serves). The K-3iii is $1600 which may be a good deal compared to a used model since it comes with a short warranty.
But what caught my eye is what isn't listed on that page, yet somehow I arrived at:
A DA* 300mm for $500? Can that be true? It's not for sale because none are in stock, but I have a hard time believing that's the price when they are in stock. I will be refreshing that page every day, that's for sure. 😆
I've seen some good deals there occasionally. Only a few months after the GR III was released they sold some refurb models there for $600. You would still be lucky to get one for that price used nowadays, let alone a few months after release! So yes, it's possible that they occasionally under estimate how much they could charge.
Instead of constantly refreshing the page you can use a free service like this to check the page every day for changes. It works pretty well:
GR III for $600 🤯 That would have been amazing to snag.
Thanks for sharing the wachete service, never heard of that one before
From my experience "refurbished" can range anywhere from indistiguishable from "new" to downright used.
I would not buy anything from Nikon directly ever again, because of my last experience in dealing with their customer service was about as fun as a trip to the Illinois Department of Motor Vehicles.
I would not buy anything without a pretty liberal return policy.
I only paid $600 for my very clean 300 at Roberts Camera (Used Photo Pro). There was some minor issue, they offered to take it back no questions asked.
Sounds like the Pentax flavor of 300mm f4 prime has some similar wonkiness as the Nikon. I would proceed with caution.
