If you’re one of the angry thousands who have been waiting since Sept 17th to get your camera, stop reading now. You’ll only hate me. I didn’t get on any pre-order lists until October 8th. Three of them to be exact… so I’ve been waiting *almost* as long as you have.

First it was Calumet, then Amazon, and then Ritz.  All three vendors were supposed to get the cameras in “first” and I was (and still am, as of writing this) on their pre-order lists with no end in sight. When I called for a status report, their best guess estimates were “at least another 3-4 weeks, minimum” for my order to ship to me.

So last night before sacking out I was reading this post at DPReview.com on my iPhone about how some guys had found brand new 5DMkII’s in-stock at their local BestBuy.  I couldn’t believe it.  Surely they had gone mad… BestBuy? Seriously? After reading the posts I jumped online as fast as I could and tried to check the “online availability” at several stores around the area…DE, MD, PA, NJ – but none showed the camera “in stock”.  Meh – oh well, right?

On my lunch break today I had a few minutes, so I started re-reading the thread and some updates that were posted. It turns out that a lot of folks had checked online to see what stores had it, but just about all of them reported an “unavailable” status so they didn’t bother calling or going to the store. Some persistant nutballs actually drove to the store and asked about it, and when they did… it turned out that most of the BestBuys would have one or two sitting around in stock.  Hmm.  The plot thickened.

After work tonight I figured I’d pay a visit to the local BestBuy and try my luck. Worst possible scenario? They don’t have any and I’m out 20 minutes of time. Why not… So I motor on down to the Christiana BestBuy around 7:15pm and wandered around the photo section a bit…where there seemed to be only one twenty-something female employee helping out a middle-aged dude – who had way too many questions about a no-brainer point and shoot camera.

I just tried to be polite and busy myself for as long as possible, milling around in the area – and what do I see? A tiny kiosk computer with a massively bold font that screamed “CHECK STOCK ON ANY ITEM IN THIS STORE”. Naturally I had to look – so I typed in “5D” and in a half-second a gigantic red banner came up that stated: “NOT IN STOCK”. Undettered, I tried several different variations like “mark II”, “5Dmk2″, “5DII” etc… no dice. Nothing. Always the optimist, I kept thinking in the back of my mind, “Bah, I *know* they’re not going have it, but I’ll just ask anyway. Nah. They’re not gonna have it…”

After standing around for a good 15-20 minutes, the camera girl finally comes over and asks if I needed help with anything, to which I promptly blurted out an awkward: “Hi! I’m looking for a new camera it’s called the Canon 5D Mark II and nobody else has them in-stock anywhere – I mean anywhere – earlier today I was reading online that some guys found them at BestBuy and I’ve been looking for one since October but I don’t think you’ll have one – do you guys have any in stock? can you check for me?” I felt like Ralphie talking to Santa… “No no, I want an official Red Ryder, carbine action, two-hundred shot range model air rifle!” She looked at me with that look that said “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about” and said point blank, while cracking her chewing gum “No, I don’t think so… umm, I’ve like never heard of that. Like, what’s it called again? Maybe I can try to check this thing real quick.”

My heart sank as she went over to the same kiosk I was at earlier and started to pull up the infamous “internal BestBuy site”… except she was searching for the original “old” 5D. I politely tried to tell her that I had previously owned the original 5D (which was the camera she was looking at on the screen right now) and the one I was really interested in was a newer version. I also mentioned I had already checked the stock via the website and the same interface she was using on the kiosk to her left.  She looked at me like I was speaking Farsi to her.

I slowly added that I had already checked stock for this new camera… the 5D… mkII… using… the same intranet… she was using… (as I pointed at the kiosk).  I said I already knew her answer would probably be “no, it’s out of stock here and at every other store in the area.” She nodded her head. I was ready to walk away and go hunt for it at the other two Delaware stores before they closed, but it was at this point that I asked the question that may have saved the night. I said to her, “Is there any way you can get me the phone number to the other stores in Delaware, so I don’t have to drive all over the place?”

This seemed to light a fire under her ass. Like magic, she said, “Oh, like, I think I can get the numbers and check all the stores in the area and see if they have any – like right from right here…” to which she promptly pointed to a different cash-register looking machine. She tried logging in (three times incorrectly) to some separate “employee only” intranet that was a motley palette of gray columns, industrial looking tables and data entry grids. I quietly thought to myself, “This was the good stuff. The non-public stuff – maybe, just maybe…No, shut up! you’re gonna jinx it!”

Within a few seconds a page full of all the stores within a good 150-200 miles came up, (with several columns full of a bunch of zeros) – And then I saw it. There was one line reporting “1 in-stock” next to it. One single store. One camera. In-stock. And it was marked as “202/Concord Pike”. Holy f’n shit. Jackpot. They have one and it’s right up the road.

One single camera left in stock within a 200 mile radius. One – and it was a 15 minute drive away. I asked her if she could please call the store to double check for me and put it on hold, which to her credit she was really nice about. She called and was put on hold immediately. Then we both waited for what felt like an eternity. After eternity was over she nodded and said “They’ve got it!” – so I told her to give my name and phone number to the person at the Concord Pike store and tell them I’d be there in 15 minutes. I made it in 7.

And now I sit, wating for the battery to charge. Images will be coming soon… I can’t wait.