Dennis Pogson wrote:
....



A word of caution is in order. If you buy a gray market GPS, it may
not have the basemaps and firmware for the part of the world you are
in, and it also will not have any warrantee. Garmin knows serial
numbers, and if you get one through a less than legit source, you
could end up with a paperweight. Same goes for buying the mapsource
Bluecharts. If the code that comes with the CD has already been used,
it won't work to unlock the disk.

You can certainly find good legit deals on ebay, but you need to be
very cautious.

I guess it happens often enough that Garmin has warnings about it on
their website.


That implies that Garmin control not only the price at which retailers sell
their products, but also with whom they are allowed to advertise. Is this
legitimate in the US? Surely sellers with their own websites can compete
with each other? Do Garmin regard Ebay as a flea market?


What Garmin can control is the "minimum advertised price" through a
proper distributor. They can't actually control the selling price.
However, this only covers "legitimate" units that come with full US
warrantee, etc. What MT is talking about is grey market, which has a
dubious heritage and should be avoided. In particular, many cameras
are sold on the grey market don't have a US warrantee.

However, Internet dealers such as GPSCity appear to be legit, and
offer a good discount off of the M.A.P. Even Defender will discount,
though you have to press to get more than a token.