Are you confident that you can do 100% check? The internals and all? There is always a chance to get ripped off despite a functional and external check.
From your posts, it sounds like you have not been out in the world too much. Are you a student? The innocence... Ahhh
example 1:
ask for hoya Pro 1D protector. they show to you, and strike convo with you. you think 'ok, they re friendy, nice people.' then they intro you to product X (eg. vitaCON) and say its better, made in japan, dunno what, blah blah blah. they ll say, its a new product, new technology so its the best and you don't see many ppl using cos its new. then they ll tell you the price is $70, but since yr the first 10 to buy we can give you for $50. the hoya they quote you $55.
so you ll think your getting more for less. n if you re not on the look out you ll kena. the above is a real life example tt happened to me. was very taken in, but still chose the hoya in the end.
example 2:
you ask for ENEL3E. they quote you $70, but say no more stock, only got 3rd party. so you ask how much, they say $30. so seems ok, and you buy. then you walk across the road to simlim tower and the man there selling for $20.
example 3:
you ask for XYZ and they give you a price about 20-30% below market price. then you go WAH! and they bring you into the shop. then they ll try and try and try to intro you to new products. won't actually let you try the one you want. then if you tell them you wan only XYZ, they ll tell you left only display set/no warranty/grey set/. or worse still, they scold you and say you heard him wrongly when he said the first price. the fact is, they cant sell you at the price they quoted you. they only said it so low so they can pull you into the shop and suck out all your money.
also happened to me when i bought my first cam e FZ5. super frustrating...
example 4:
they entertain you and you v happy, then proceed to buy from the counter. only after paying then they say its grey set and got no warranty. but there's nothign you can do about that cos you paid by netts. this one happened to me when i bought my mb d200..
example 5:
they quote you some ridiculous MSRP thats like 2ce the price, then say got student offer so we give you half price. then you go to courts and see the same thing for $150 less.. this was with my tokina 100mm f/2.8 macro.
i kena alot alrd.. imho, it might actually be better on the BS forum.. just be careful and do ALOT of homework before buying =)