Even though Amazon will tell you that they're our of stock, they will still let you order it from them and will ship it to you when it becomes available. I've had mine back-ordered from them since 3/23 and still no updates. I'm in no hurry to get that lens at this time so that's fine but I hope Amazon won't just say issue a rain check.

I recently sold my AF-S Nikkor 16-85 DX VR on Amazon Marketplace and trust me, I was thankful for a quick sale within $50 of my purchase price. It's just unfortunate that I know the devastation in Japan and the price increases helped lead to my sale. As prices were increased on all major on-line retailers I left mine the same actually not thinking I could profit more from the misfortune of others. Who knows, if I'd increased the price it could have still been sitting there right now.

See thread.
http://nikonrumors.com/forum/topic.php?id=3398

Stuff is going up everywhere and will be that way for probably a year for some things. (Nikon & Non Nikon.) I have been watching ebay at Fuji X100s and two weeks ago they were going for $2400 and people were putting a buy it now price of over $2500. Now since Fuji has announced production is back up the paying prices are just a little north of $1500, $1700 in EU (With Vat it is about the same.)

All about supply and demand.

@tcole - This lens was increasing in price/rarity before the earthquake. I ended up getting a Ritz to price match the Best Buy ad in-store, since BB didn't have any, but Amazon was running around $300 even then (with Adorama and BHPhoto out of stock, since I looked there first).

If you're in the US you can still get them for $199.99 plus tax at BestBuy. Doesn't look like they're shipping them but you can "ship to store" and pick one up at your local retail store after ordering online. I think this is the only case I know of where BestBuy is the cheaper alternative. I skipped the 35 in DX in favor of the 35mm f/2 for when I do finally get my FX body. Good luck

There is a shortage....not sure what the reason, but others have complained about it as well on Amazon. I got mine in August of 2010 for $194.95 and it is now over $390 (although Amazon still says $199, but I think they are out of stock right?).

Overall there has been a jump in lens prices since the earthquake. I am not sure about the shortages though because it seems like many lenses are out of stock as well. I would also maybe say that since people have gotten tax returns maybe is causing it...people buying more? At least in the US.

hmm i would like to know why the price of this lens has gone up as well.

I preordered one on March 8th from Amazon.com, only game in town, for $199 including shipping. Received it on March 30th. Prices now are in the $300-400 range.
Good luck in getting one for the price quoted.

I was planning on buying this lens for a while but prioritized my manual focus lenses... about a month and a half ago I decided to lay out the cash but the supply of it had apparently dried up. Now within the past few days the price has been posted at $290 once they get it back in a B&H/Adorama... I was able to drop in an order at Amazon for $199 but I don't know if they will still honor it.

Does anyone know what is going on with this lens? It can't be blamed on the tsunami because it had disappeared before that, plus it is manufactured in China. It's only about two years old, could they already be making a version 2 of it? I know people have been asking for a multicoated version.