Thanks for the write-up. That's interesting that they stopped selling them for a while. I haven't utilized Costco Next and I would be a bit concerned that it's essentially an outlet that has old, dead stock and I would get the older ones. The warranty is one of the big selling points but I live in Hawaii - any major returns I would need to send it to the mainland, which costs a fortune. The only retailers are in Honolulu, and there's only one authorized repair center on Oahu (it can only do minor repairs, not cracks).

I would love Rimowa but I can't really justify the price. They never seem to go on sale either.