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Originally Posted by pappymojo
just figured I would reply to my own post. I bought the ipod I was looking for from this site bhphotovideo.com. I got the special U2 version for my girlfriend. it was $250 with free shipping and handling where the cheapest I could find otherwise was just shy of $300. She's a big U2 fan so it worked out quite well. One thing though the installation instructions are in japanese! oh well, I'm sure I can help her to figure it out this weekend. I'm very happy with the experience of buying from this store.
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B&H Photo has been a big "grey market" dealer in cameras and photo supplies, electronics, and more for a very long time. The instructions are probably in Japanese because B&H bought a shipment of iPods that were intended for the Japanese market. They would have bought them from Japanese distributor who bought a humongous amount of iPods from Apple to get a volume discount, then sold the excess iPods he didn't need at his cost or a little more to sellers in other markets -- like B&H. Manufacturers are usually not happy about such arrangements, because it undermines their pricing structure and takes the distribution system somewhat out of their control. For example, I see nowhere on the B&H site a note that they are an Apple-Authorized dealer. Sony, yes. Apple, no.
Is this a problem? Maybe only if you need warranty service. I don't know Apple's policy, but some companies are insistent that the products they ship out to a particular market are to be sold in that market only, and will not necessarily honor warranties for products reimported to America by distributors. You might want to check that out.