Best Buy and the Canon Rebate Double-Dip

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Best Buy returned their prices to “normal” today — they’re now featuring the same pre-rebate price as all other stores. We interpret this as confirmation that the low pricing we saw earlier this week was unintended — an accident on Best Buy’s part.

We’re also hearing from our readers that Best Buy has shipped all their orders at the low prices, and the rebate pre-submissions are being accepted on Canon’s rebate portal. Given the approved pre-submissions as well as all the clarifications from Canon’s hotline, we now have pretty good confidence that the double-dip will work out (as long as Canon does their part). Congrats to all who got in on the deal!

Unfortunately, with the price increase, the opportunity to get the 24-70 II for $1699 is over for now. We’re always on the lookout for the next big deal so please subscribe if you haven’t (use the notify button on the main page, or follow us on twitter) and we’ll e-mail you as soon deals happen.


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EF 35mm f/1.4L USM for $1179 after rebate at Amazon, Adorama

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EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Wide Angle Lens
EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Wide Angle Lens
$880.78
Deal Expired
EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Wide Angle Lens
EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Wide Angle Lens
$0.00
Deal Expired

Amazon has the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM for $1179.00, after a $150 mail-in rebate. This is the cheapest price that we’ve seen in over 4 years, since January 2009. This is the same price as the Best Buy deal but Amazon charges sales tax to fewer states.

UPDATE: Adorama and Adorama via eBay have price-matched.

Amazon was recently added to the list of participating retailers for the Canon rebate so we don’t expect you’ll have a problem getting your rebate fulfilled.


EF 28-135mm IS Refurbished for $192 at Adorama via eBay

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Refurbished EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens
Refurbished EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM Standard Zoom Lens
$192.00
Deal Expired

Great eBay Deal of the Day: Adorama via eBay has the image-stabilized Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM (Canon refurbished) for $192. This is a great deal — well below what this lens goes for used, and well below other refurbished ($383 at Canon Direct Store) or new prices ($479 from authorized dealers new).

At $192 this is a great value — a good choice as an upgrade from a kit lens. 100 have sold already in less than an hour!


Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 DI VC USD for $999 AR at Cameraland eBay

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SP 24-70mm f/2.8 DI VC USD for Canon Standard Zoom Lens
SP 24-70mm f/2.8 DI VC USD for Canon Standard Zoom Lens
$899.99
Deal Expired

If $1999 for the non-IS Canon 24-70 II is still too much for you, Cameraland via eBay, an authorized Tamron dealer, has the image-stabilized Tamron SP 24-70mm f/2.8 DI VC USD for Canon for $999.99 — half the price — after a $100 mail-in rebate. This is the absolute cheapest price we’ve seen from an authorized dealer. The $100 mail-in Tamron rebate has been extended to end October 31st for this lens.

Cameraland only has one more in-stock at this price, but they restock periodically: generally they’ll put four up for sale each week. If they’re out of stock you can set a notification via the notify button on our page for this lens.


Canon Mail-in Rebate: Amazon is not on the participating retailer list!

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UPDATE: As of noon October 3rd, Amazon.com was added to the Canon rebate official retailers list. Someone’s listening to us 🙂

Another update to the Canon mail-in rebate saga: although the rebate form suggests all authorized dealers are eligible, the official list of participating retailers was published and one popular retailer — Amazon — is not on the list.

We’re surprised to see Amazon is missing from the participating retailers list (thanks goes to CPW reader Brian who noticed this). However, Amazon is still advertising the rebate as available. We tried to pre-submit a rebate claim and were unable to select Amazon as the retailer.

The latest update regarding Best Buy is: they’re still on the list (as “BEST BUY COMPANY INC”). We’ve asked Canon’s rebate hotline to clarify several times, and each time we’re told that any retailer on the list is eligible for the rebate. At this time we think they’ll be eligible for the instant rebate (but of course, we cannot be certain). Because of the double-dip, this is probably the best current deal out of all the stores.

Other retailers we checked were B&H, Adorama, or BuyDig. They’re all on the list (BuyDig is well disguised “BEACH TRADING CO INC”). All three stores are offering a 4% reward. BuyDig‘s reward is instantly applied during checkout. Adorama is also offering a free UV filter kit for all lenses, and occasionally a free tripod or memory card.

You can check out our list of mail-in and instant rebated items and their current prices.


EF 28mm f/1.8 USM (non-IS) for $389 at Amazon

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EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Wide Angle Lens
EF 28mm f/1.8 USM Wide Angle Lens
$389.00
Deal Expired

Amazon is clearing out the Canon EF 28mm f/1.8 USM (non-IS version) for $389.00. This is the cheapest price that we’ve seen in over 5 years, since April 2008. Compare with $449 at other authorized dealers.

It’s not a surprise that this lens is getting cleared out — its “replacement”, the EF 28mm f/2.8 IS USM was just featured in a new instant rebate and is now available for $499.


Is Best Buy Eligible for Canon Mail-in Rebate?

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Yesterday we posted about a possible deal at Best Buy where price drops coincided with a new Canon mail-in rebate. There was the potential for some insane deals, like the 24-70 II for $1699 after-rebate, the 70-200 II for $1899 after-rebate, or the 100L Macro for $749 after-rebate.

Although the mail-in rebate form clearly doesn’t have any specific restrictions on Best Buy (only “authorized dealers”, of which Best Buy is one), it’s still unclear whether or not purchases are eligible for the rebate.

Here’s what we know:

Early this morning we made a few calls to the Canon Rebates hotline (1-866-668-9861) and asked if purchases made at Best Buy are eligible for the mail-in rebate. According to the agent I spoke to, the list was not published yet but she felt that Best Buy would not be a valid retailer for this rebate (even though they are an authorized dealer). (If that’s really the case, shame on Canon for not being transparent about this on their mail-in rebate form!)

best_buy

However, the list was published an hour later and it indeed does clearly show that BEST BUY COMPANY INC is a valid and participating retailer for this rebate. I’ve taken a screenshot and linked it here in case they decide to try to change this later.

I followed up with another call — according to the agent, if the retailer is on the list, they are a valid retailer for the rebate. I recommend that you try calling (1-866-668-9861) as well — if you have an update, please leave a comment.

My recommendation to CanonPriceWatch readers is: if you tried to get in on this deal, there’s still too much misinformation to know for sure whether or not your mail-in rebate will be honored. My recommendation is don’t open the boxes, and don’t cut the UPC codes until we know for sure. Best Buy has a minimum 15-day return policy; wait patiently, and we should know more by the end of the week. Maybe Canon will decide by then 🙂

In the worst-case scenario, you can think of Best Buy’s current sale as an application of an equivalent “instant rebate”. If you live in a low-tax or no-tax state, this may still be preferable to waiting 6-8 weeks for the rebate AMEX gift card to be mailed to you.

You can check out the full list of rebated items and their current prices. The list includes both the instant rebate program and the mail-in rebate program — both started on the same day.

I will update this post as more info is known.