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I live in North Carolina and have always delt with Amazon in purchasing my higher end photo items and computer equipment. Up until fairly recently, Amazon did not charge NC customers NC state tax on items but have started doing so. I want to purchase a new Sony 70-200 G lens that runs about $1500 but the tax alone on this is over $100! That hurts. I love dealing with Amazon because of thier generous return policy and prompt honest service, but now with this added on tax, it's becoming less attractive.

Does anyone out there know of another good honest vendor of photo gear that yould carry this lens but will not charge me the NC state tax?

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Try any other out of state camera store (beach camera, Adorama, b&h, etc.).

 

I know how you feel. I live in NY. So every great sale at Adorama or B&H I have to add like $200 to the sale price just for tax. It's a killer when I know I can order the same thing from an out of state store like Beach Camera and not pay tax.

 

Also, try https://www.greentoe.com. It's supposedly some new camera gear reverse auction site that guys are getting great deals on. You set the price you want to pay for the lens or gear, and the stores either accept your offer or give you a counter offer. Might be able to save even more money.

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When your untaxed lens gets stolen maybe there won't be a viable police dept and judicial system because you didn't contribute to the social contract. 

 

You owe a tax whether the retailer charges it. 

 

The Customer’s Responsibility

In cases where the online retailer does not have to collect sales tax, it is the customer’s responsibility to pay the tax—in which case it is known not as a sales tax but, rather, a “use tax.” The DOR has a webpage providing basic guidance on the use tax, as well as a FAQ page on the use tax. The DOR’s basic guidance states that “Out-of-state retailers that are not ‘engaged in business’ in this State cannot be required to collect North Carolina's tax,” and that such retailers include out-of-state businesses selling over the Internet. Similarly, the FAQ page mentions that items purchased on the Internet may be subject to use tax.

For additional information, you can check the use tax statute, N.C. Gen. Stat. 105-164.6

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  • 2 weeks later...

$1500 +$100 seems like a good deal.

 

In Australia we pay +10% on anything that gets ordered in from overseas.  If it is LESS than $900 the government does not care.  Anything above that you pay tax (called GST). GST gets applied to anything you might be renting too...

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    • From my records, Minolta made about 8500 85mm F 1.7 lenses bearing the MD badge. The MC-X version was slightly double that. So these are not that rare. I just saw an ad for a Limited Rare MD 45mm F2 lens ( Minolta made over a million of these) so the word rare is often used in a bizarre way. Seeing that the OP has a MD ROKKOR-X version and that he appears to have bought it from Europe is kind of unusual since the ROKKOR-X versions were to be sold exclusively in America. So in Europe, this lens naming was rare.  I think the confusion about a reworked version may come from the fact that during the MC-X era (1972-76), Minolta made numerous changes to their lens line-up. First they changed the lens Mount Index dot which was initially painted like their previous series of lenses but after about 1 year, they replaced this with a slightly larger diameter plastic bead. This change happened around the introduction of the X-1, XM, XK bodies. Then they removed the small Stop Down Levers that were on most lenses up to now around 1975 since their SR T and XK/XE bodies were now boasting a Stop down mechanism. Then a little later Minolta even removed the lens formula (in this case PG) designation from the lens markings. This may have caused people to believe there was some kind of modification to the lens when it was only a marking  change. Also around 1973-74 they decided to provide a different marking for lenses sold in America ( at least USA and Canada) to identify lenses sold on the grey market that was often cause for confusion with consumers buying a great deal they could not get repaired under warranty. Same applies to Bodies starting in the same era where  X-1 was for Asian market, XK for American market and X-M for rest of the world, then SR T 102 in America, SR T Super in Asia and SR T 303 in rest of the world. So you could find all of the following with their respective front markings: - MC-II: MC ROKKOR-PG 1:1.7 f=85mm ( with SDL) This type has the hills and valleys metal focusing ring -MC-X: MC ROKKOR-PG 1:1.7 f=85mm ( with SDL and Painted Lens mount index changed around 1973-74) -MC-X: MC ROKKOR-PG 1:1.7 f=85mm ( with SDL and Plastic Bead Lens mount index changed around 1973-74) -MC-X: MC ROKKOR-PG 1:1.7 f=85mm ( with No SDL and Plastic Bead Lens mount index ) -MC-X: MC ROKKOR 1:1.7 f=85mm ( with No SDL and Plastic Bead Lens mount index and no more PG lens formula index) -MC-X: MC ROKKOR-X PG 1:1.7 f=85mm ( with SDL and Plastic Bead Lens mount index, Orange colored ROKKOR-X marking for the American market) -MC-X: MC ROKKOR-X PG 1:1.7 f=85mm ( with No SDL and Plastic Bead Lens mount index, Orange colored ROKKOR-X ) -MC-X: MC ROKKOR 1:1.7 f=85mm ( with No SDL and Plastic Bead Lens mount index and no more PG lens formula index, Orange colored ROKKOR-X) -MD-II: MD ROKKOR 85mm 1:1.7 ø55mm -MD-II: MD ROKKOR-X 85mm 1:1.7 ø55mm (Orange colored ROKKOR-X again for the American market) -MD-II: MD ROKKOR-X 85mm 1:1.7 ø55mm (White colored ROKKOR-X ( iguess orange paint was getting too expensive) ) It was then replaced with the MD-II MD ROKKOR (X) 85mm F 2 There was no MD-I version of this lens and the same with a few lenses with large apertures ( 35mm F 1.8, 58mm F 1.2, 300mm F 4.5) since they had issues with the speed of the aperture mechanisms closing down for what was  a last minute check on XD/XD-7 and XD-11 bodies requiring stopping the lens down just prior to the shutter opening to ensure accurate exposure. Some late MC-X lenses may have had the modified aperture mechanism causing the confusion that there was an updated version but the optical formula seems to indicate there was no change.

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