Well, lucky for me there
IS a camera store in Lexington, Kentucky. A few months ago I called and asked them to put me down on their list to buy the R5 and a RF 15-35 f2.8. I forgot about them as they didn't call back and I pre-ordered the first day at B&H and later pre-ordered (late) at CPW (CanonPriceWatch) and waited for 1st delivery, hopefully from an online store for no sales tax or even further savings (if CPW). When the 1st batch was sent out I wasn't sent any from B&H, and was way far away on the list at CPW. But who surprises me and calls me? - My local camera store - they say, "We just got our R5s in and if you want yours them come on it!" I did - only had to pay full MSRP and 6% state tax. But I
GOT a R5 in my hands. I didn't get the RF 15-35. They told me they sold 1 R5 before me to a guy who's buying it just to sell to another guy who's going to pay him $6,000 OVER the MSRP price, and he wanted to buy BOTH of them (his and mine) as his friend would pay him the same for a 2nd one! But the store made sure I could accept mine before selling it to him. Nice store, there!
I then called CPW to get 4 RF lenses (RF 15-35 f2.8, 24-70 f2.8, 70-200 f2.8 & 800 f11) and they hooked me up with a authorized North American Canon dealer to get them below MSRP (minimum price you can advertise to sell), but above MRP (minimum you can sell it at without advertising) - that saved me a lot of money (thanks, CPW!), enough to pay for the R5 tax several times over. Got them all in less than a week.
So now I'm a happy camper and new Canon owner for the 1st time, and what do I think when I put the R5 with one of the trinity RF L IS f2.8 zooms next to my "old" Olympus EM1_II with 24-100 f4 pro? I think, "Man, this is one big & heavy camera! - My old EM1_II feels like half the weight (sigh)". But I know the R5 will make it more than worthwhile!
(and my brother will be the lucky one getting my EM1_II gear)