What you are saying may be true, but I don't think it would convince Nikon or Canon to honor a grey market camera for warranty purposes. Besides, if costco were to take a camera back all they would do is to see if they can get it to work, then repackage it and sell it to the next buyer. My Daughter will not listen to me about computers even though I have built mine and my Sons computers for over 20 years now. She wanted a new laptop (She breaks them about every year, or a dog running thru the house will get tangled in a power cord and launch the laptop across the room). She doesn't care because she gets whatever she wants from her husband. Anyway, she went to Best Buy to get a laptop. You know the place that has the Tech Wonders known as the Geek Squad. A salesman talked her into a refurbished MSI laptop that had just been put back on the shelf from being completely checked over and passed all tests. She stopped by to show it to me and when she pulled it out of the box I looked at it and noticed that it did not match the box that it was in. I asked her what she paid for it and she said $640.00. I said well, I guess you lucked out this time,because this is not the computer that is supposed to be in this box. I looked it up on Best Buys web site and say that it was listed for $1600.00. She was thrilled until she got home with it and hooked it up. Many, many problems. She got ahold of MSI Tech Support and they remotely got into her laptop to try to figure out what was wrong. They finally told her that it had a bad motherboard and to return it to Best Buy for a refund or exchange. So much for a great deal! Most people at places like Best Buy, Wal-Mart, and Cost-Co know very little about the electronic items they are telling you are the greatest. They are just there to pay the bills at home.