Does Adorama have a presence in NJ? If not, probably Adorama.

@v10tdi

That's a good short term workaround that I may use for the time being. I also wanna find out how I can get on their tax exempt list with a business identity.

@eatstoomuchjam

Yes, Adorama is in NJ hence tax fee is added.

@4CardsMan

Yes, the states will take your money once they have more and more people addicted to online shopping etc. You see my thing is I could go to B&H and try things out but I don't like that experience. I went to it twice and the store is always full of people. I'd rather have it shipped to me, test it for about a week and then return it if the given item doesn't work as advertised.

The evil of the Monopoly rises.

@Tommyboy - I'll take your point about the crowds. But the stuff I'm interested in doesn't draw much of a crowd. For example, I went back to Sound and a very knowledgeable man helped me with a Sanken CS-3. In general Sanken products are the best you can buy or close to it. But this mike was too directional for me, and it really helped to have someone who knew exactly how to boom it work with me. Had I ordered one, I would need to get someone who didn't have a clue to work with me, and after weeks of work, I might have worked out that this was the wrong solution, and then returned it with a possibly looming return deadline.

If the local very successful camera store had B&H's return policy, I would buy my XT-2 from them and pay the tax. We have another dealer who specializes in filmmaking products locally, and if I can get the same return policy from them I will buy the XT-2 from them and pay the tax, because I would really like for them to stay in business.

@Vitaliy_Kiselev - Marx had that one dead right. Capitalism does converge to monopoly. After all, why should two big companies pay auxiliary staff for HR and other functions that apply to any business, when they can merge and get rid of almost half the staff? This is not the main problem. The real problem is that capitalism destroys the value of work, and the mechanism of destruction is price, which is what this thread is about.

You may find these guys interesting: http://positivemoney.org/

In a Nutshell: Money should be created by public body for public good, not by private banks (as it is now).

It requires a greater level of skill from the boom operator. If you're a little off when pointing it, you'll miss something. The best sound guy in my area uses a CS-3 as his first choice,especially in a noisy environment. But the lower-end guys don't want to spend the money. So, they don't have the skill to operate it. The CS-3 is like a scalpel. A CS-2 or a 416 is more like a good kitchen knife.

"B&H only collects tax on orders shipping to destinations in New York State and New Jersey as of February 1, 2017. We would not collect tax on orders shipping to other US states. We understand your frustration with our decision to open a fulfillment center in New Jersey. We want you to know that this decision was made from necessity. We currently operate out of two fulfillment centers in New York City. Our lease is about to expire on our main facility. Operating multiple fulfillment centers is a major challenge for us and has made it increasingly more difficult for us to process orders and keep adequate inventory levels to meet demand.

Our only option was to find a larger suitable facility with enough space and modern material handling systems. We are committed to all our customers to stock everything they need, and to process orders in a timely fashion. After an extensive (and ever-widening) search, we found such a facility in New Jersey.

With regards to the benefits New Jersey customers can anticipate, as soon as our new facility is up and running, we will be able to extend order cutoff times for free next day delivery from 3:30PM/4:00PM to approximately 7:00PM. In addition, we will have a new customer pickup option for New Jersey customers who need their orders right away. Finally we are actively exploring options for same day delivery to large parts of New Jersey.

We built our business around customer loyalty and we appreciate every opportunity you have given us to be your supplier of choice. Thank you for your continued loyalty."

Had to deal with B&H kids today to remove tax they charged to my preordered GH5+ back in January.