Thanks for this note; prompted me to call my camera store guy and was told a couple of weeks ago Nikon called to confirm the order was valid as the lens will be shipped "within a few weeks." Nikon being Nikon, no definition of "few" but still!! Whoohoo!Nikon shipped mine yesterday. Ordered it within minutes of it being available. Non NPS. I also heard my local store got one yesterday, I'm sure it's spoken for.