How to Buy a DJI Mini 5 Pro or DJI Drone in the United States

While DJI isn’t technically banned in the United States, the drones they’ve been releasing lately, like the DJI Mini 5 Pro or the Mavic 4 Pro drone, have been incredibly difficult to get. So, if you’re wanting to buy a DJI drone today, especially the newer ones like the Mini 5 Pro—which I’m borrowing from a friend to do a review of, and I have to say, it’s super impressive—definitely subscribe if you want to see a review and comparison of the Mini 5 Pro that has not been sent to me by DJI.

Whether you want to buy the Mavic 4 Pro or even some of the regular drones that have been around for a year or two, like the Air 3S or Mini 4 Pro, those are all pretty difficult to get.

Today, I have a couple of different legitimate ways for you to buy a DJI drone because they are not banned in the United States. In fact, these drones are fully approved in the United States. They’ve just been next to impossible to get. However, there are a couple of caveats you need to be aware of before you go ordering any of the new DJI drones.

Understanding the FCC Approval Situation

Just so we’re clear, there technically is no DJI drone ban yet. What there will be at the end of this year is a ban on new products being approved through the FCC. So all of the drones, including the Mini 5 Pro and the DJI Mavic 4, are approved for use in the United States. It’s just a matter of them not being able to get through customs and be imported. But of course, like anything in this world, there are workarounds, and that’s what I’m going to try and help you with, especially if you want to get some of the newer drones that have been released but not released in the US.

Important Warranty and Repair Disclaimer

With all of that said, there is a big caveat you need to know. All of these drones, especially the new drones that have not technically been released in the United States, like the Mavic 4 Pro or the Mini 5 Pro, will not have a warranty, and you will not be able to get repairs on them. Now, that’s true of pretty much any DJI drones right now. You cannot get repairs done in the United States because they’re unable to ship parts in and repair them themselves. They’re in the same boat. So, with any drones, I recommend being very careful.

Method 1: Purchasing Abroad

The way a lot of people will be getting these is by taking a trip to Canada, Mexico, or other places where the drones have been released and are more readily available, then buying them there and bringing them back. You can do that. There is some risk that if you don’t declare it when you come back through customs, you might be charged or fined the equivalent tariff amount. My reading and understanding of it is that there’s no jail time associated with that, but you could definitely be charged a fairly hefty fine. So that may not be the way to go, especially since you’re traveling quite a ways away. That might not be the best way to do it. But there are other ways.

Method 2: Pre-ordering from Adorama or B&H

The way I got the DJI Mavic 4 Pro, even though it hasn’t been released, is I ordered mine on Adorama the moment it was launched, and they happened to have a few. So, I happened to get one. You can do that. You can pre-order on Adorama or B&H and hope that maybe they eventually get some in stock. They don’t really know when they get them in stock, so there’s no real communication there. You could be waiting a few weeks, or you could be waiting a few months.

Method 3: Drone Works

There are a lot of web shops that have sprung up seemingly overnight, all of a sudden offering DJI drones in stock. I would be very cautious of a lot of those because they may not have a long history. They might very well be straight-up scams. It’s really hard to tell. So, one of the ones that I know is not a scam and that does a great job—because I’ve purchased the Air 3S, the Mavic 3 Pro Cine, the Air 3, and I think the Mini 4 Pro through them—is Drone Works. This will all be linked in the description. I don’t get any affiliate commission from Drone Works, but they do a great job.

They’re based in Florida. They do a great job of communicating if they have drones in stock or when they’re going to get some in stock. Because they’re US-based, if they have them in stock, they ship out really quickly. They’ve shipped to me when I’ve been traveling all over the United States and gotten them to me basically wherever I was. Zach, the owner there, is a great guy. He’s done a great job at getting a lot of these.

Now, the biggest benefit to getting a drone through Zach or through Drone Works is that if you have an issue—the drone you get doesn’t work properly or it has a warranty issue—oftentimes he is able to work with you and his supplier and be able to get that taken care of. Now, that’s not a guarantee. There are no promises, but there is a possibility that at least if something does go wrong, you may be able to get the warranty repair done. That’s all I’m going to say about that because I don’t know all the details. I don’t want to put him on the spot for having to do that, but there’s a chance that he might be able to work on that with you. Those are only drones that you purchase through Drone Works, though. So, don’t email him asking if he can repair any of your other drones.

Method 4: eBay

The other way to get things like the Mini 5 Pro or the DJI Mavic 4 Pro or even some of the other DJI drones that are difficult to get right now is eBay. I know of a handful of people who have purchased their drones through eBay, including Mavic 4s and Mini 5 Pros, and they have all received them within a few days. None of them have had issues with having to pay crazy exorbitant tariffs or anything like that. I’ve linked the Mini 5 Pro and the DJI Mavic 4 in the description with eBay links that I do get affiliate income on.

Even if you do get the drone from eBay, you need to be aware that because these drones are not released in the US, there’s no warranty guaranteed. There’s no repair guaranteed. I do believe there is insurance you can purchase through eBay that, if you purchase it at the time of purchase, will help cover your costs if your drone is broken or something like that. I haven’t looked deeply into that.

The nice thing about doing the eBay thing is there are some that are US-based and some that are South Korea-based. The South Korea-based ones seem to be very legit, at least the few that I know that friends of mine have ordered through. The US-based ones seem to be—a few of them seem to be legit and some of them are not. I know a friend of mine who didn’t get scammed, but they tried to scam him.

The rule of that is if you’re going to purchase through eBay, you only purchase through eBay. You don’t do any external transaction at all, because if you do that, you immediately lose all your buyer protection. At least if you do everything through eBay, you have that protection, the buyer protection. So yeah, make sure you do that properly so that you don’t get scammed.

Wrapping up

Those are the only ways right now that I know of that you can get a Mavic 4 Pro, a Mini 5 Pro, or even in some cases the Air 3S or the Mini 4 Pro, or any DJI drones or parts right now. Going through eBay seems to be pretty reliable and works pretty well. Going through Drone Works, who does a great job of communicating and there is some potential there for warranty repairs if they’re needed. Or going through a pre-order process at Adorama or B&H and just hoping that they eventually get some in stock.

Like I said, this is the Mini 5 Pro. It’s a friend of mine’s. He ordered it from South Korea on eBay, and I’m going to be working with it to do a review and a comparison. So if you want to see that, definitely stay tuned. But next, you’re going to want to watch this video right here. I’ll see you over there.

As always, if you have questions, ask me in the comments below. Join my live stream, which happens most Wednesday nights at 4:00 PM Alaska time, 8:00 PM Eastern time. We can have more of a conversation. I can answer questions that I probably didn’t get to in this video. I will see you again soon in the next one. Cheers.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​