Great news folks: I won’t be boring you with camera news any more because I got a camera!

But then I didn’t and now I almost have a camera again.

Here’s how my tale of faux woe goes:

First off, let me shock you with this: after asking on facebook and talking on this here site about cameras, I came to a decision about the camera I wanted, the Canon EOS Digital Rebel Xsi. I read the reviews, compared it to the (now cheaper) XT and XTi and decided that depsite the inflated price, the changes to this camera were enough that I could deal with the fact that it might cost 1/3 more.

Three weeks ago, I was checking out the website of one of Canada’s premier camera retailers, Blacks Photo. I have a friend who swears by them (and to be honest I put a lot of stock in the opinions of friends about things I know nothing about, like buying houses), so I went to their site as a work-avoidance ploy and gasped: my very camera was $200 off the price being offered at any other store, even Best Buy, known for having very competitively-priced electronics.

I dithered, but not for long, as the sale would be over on Sunday night (it was Tuesday or Wednesday at this point). On Sunday night (not surprisingly I waited until the last minute), I asked every family member, including the ones who don’t give a rip about cameras whether I should go for it. Depending on when I asked during that week, I got different responses. My hesitation wasn’t about the camera—it’s marvellous—it was its cost.

Fiiiinnally, right before midnight, I decided to buy it.

My credit card was declined.

I tried again two more times, same response. I was too worried about missing the deadline to wonder why my empty card was being declined. It turns out they thought it was a fraudulent purchase (I have never put even half of the cost of the camera on my credit card at one time) and were protecting me. Rich thought it was interesting that I didn’t take the three declines as a sign that I shouldn’t buy the camera. I guess I was (finally) sure about it.

I remembered my other credit card, the one with the sticker on it telling me to call a 1-800 number to activate it, so I activated it, only to use it three minutes later. The transaction went through without a problem.

By the following Tuesday, less than 48 hours later, I was holding my new camera! And squealing with excitement. I snapped pictures of each family member (on automatic; I didn’t take the time to read the manual), and lots of random things. My only problem with the whole thing is that I was only able to get a total of two years for warranty, and previous experience had shown me that if my electronics are going to die on me, it’ll be very close to the second year. I didn’t wnat to take that risk, so I figured I’d see if the physical store could give me an additional year’s warranty.

Four days later, my brother told me the camera was on sale! $100 cheaper than what I had paid! That wasn’t a problem though, because Blacks has this amazing 60 day price protection thing where if you see your product on sale in that time, they’ll honour the price. Isn’t that fabulous?

So, off we went to the store that had this awesome deal, just to confirm it, and indeed it was the same camera with a better price. Then we went to Best Buy to look at laptops and I just had to sneak into the camera section, only to find my camera with an additional lens for a really really great price.

I went to Blacks, asked for an extra year’s warranty and if they had a similar deal with the extra lens. They didn’t have either, so I returned the camera and headed off to Best Buy to get my darling.

Sold.out.

Ooops!

I got a raincheck for a 30 day period but so far, despite my calling every other day, my camera has not yet arrived in the store. And if it doesn’t come in within the 30 days? Too bad for me—they don’t guarantee prices for longer than 30 days!

And if the camera doesn’t come in soon I guarantee you’ll hear more camera-related whinings! Until then, I’m almost a camera owner!

Filed under: Money by jummy