Got My Own BL-3… Without Paying Too Much
A few posts ago I wrote about the horrible overpayments being made on eBay for the Nikon BL-3 battery caps. Yet, here we are today, and none of my favorite online vendors have this item in stock yet. I have a camera sitting around doing nothing because I don’t have a way to use my batteries.
That is, until today. 
As of today I am the proud owner of not one but two Nikon BL-3 battery caps… one for each of my EN-EL4a rechargable battery packs. The cap is designed so that you attach it to the battery and then store both (cap + battery) in the small sack provided. Since I have two batteries, I decided that two caps would be a good idea.
If you haven’t read the older post (linked above) the summary is this: someone paid nearly $250 for one of these battery caps a while back. The cap is a $35-40 part at most online retailers; they’re just not able to get it in stock. Due to the demand from Nikon D3 owners I expect the scarcity to continue. When I did the research the average selling price on eBay was hovering just about $100.
Now $100 is a lot less than $250, but still more than I wanted to pay.
A few days ago (last Sunday, to be exact) I was able to win two eBay auctions from the same seller. By winning both I was able to combine shipping. The net result is I paid about $45 each for my BL-3 caps, and that number includes shipping as well. They just came in today, so I hope to finally be able to try out my new camera (F6) soon.
And I feel good about the price I paid too. 
