Nikon casts net over grey market, gives reason to buy Australian

Recently, electronics stores including JB HiFi and Kogan started selling grey market goods to consumers through their online presences, effectively giving consumers a break from the high cost of local pricing. Nikon has now apparently woken up to this, and it’s good news for customers.

Starting from today, if a retailer known to be selling grey market Nikon gear stops the practice of selling internationally obtained goods, the Australian arm of the Japanese giant will offer competitive pricing to that store, as well as extended warranties.

The initiative is called “I Am Peace Of Mind”, and aside for guaranteed sealed Australian stock, Nikon will be adding an extra year warranty on top of the standard twelve months for Nikon Coolpix, mirror-less interchangeables, and digital SLR cameras sold through Nikon authorised resellers.

We’re already seeing some of the prices shift at JB HiFi, where its grey market presence for Nikon has now disappeared entirely. New prices for products are already appearing, where a Nikon J1 with 10-30mm lens can be grabbed for $646, compared to the $699 price we’re seeing at other stores.

We’ve asked Kogan to find out if they too will be switching to Australian stock in light of the Nikon’s new initiative, as well as Nikon to see if the two year warranty will affect customers who purchased a new camera in the past year.

UPDATE (March 6, 6:04PM): Kogan got back to us with the following statement:

“It is Kogan’s duty to our customers to provide them with the best price in the world on any technology item they are after. We will do whatever it takes to achieve this. At present, Kogan has the best prices on Nikon cameras in Australia.”

We’ve checked some of the prices on offer by Kogan, and even with Nikon offering excellent prices now, Kogan is among the cheapest. That said, it’s worth noting that Nikon product on offer from Kogan misses out on a warranty from Nikon Australia, instead being sent directly to Kogan.