A NikonUSA employee posted on the D1sscussion list that "NikonUSA sells parts." He pointed to the Nikon Store (note my repeat of my comment that they should do just that in an earlier story). You'd better click on that exact URL, though, because if you type "parts" into the Nikon Store search box, you'll get a "no items found" response, and if you search for "parts" in the menus, you won't find it.
Even if you use Nikon's exact wording they use on the site for a part (say "D3x hot shoe cover") in the search box, you might not quite get back what you expect. The first result, for example, is actually the accessory shoe cover for the Nikon V1, with a 100% confidence level that it's the right answer. And the second result is the BS-2 cover with only a 60% confidence level, even though that's the right answer.
The list of parts on Nikon Store seems to be the same as the parts list I published previously, for which you used to be able to just call and order. Online makes more sense, so that's not the problem.
The problem remains: none of the parts that triggered me to write about this issue are available on the Nikon Store. So the problem is still the same as I wrote, despite NikonUSA trying to tell some folk that they "sell parts." If you lose or need certain user-installable parts (say the rubber gasket covering the vertical grip connectors on your D800), you'll have to send your camera in for repair. At least until someone at NikonUSA finally realizes that they are doing the wrong thing here and they start stocking all the user installable parts and make sure that every NikonUSA customer support rep knows the URL to point people to.