I've had thoughts of importing from the US instead of buying locally.
The main thing that has stopped me so far has been the warranty issue, however I have discovered that if you buy within the US (pick up yourself and/or ship to a US address), then ship it to Australia yourself, the warranty counts here still.
It then becomes an equation to solve, for these variables:
Local price in AUD (plus local shipping cost - usually free within Aus for the level of gear we're talking about)
vs
Price in USD + US Address Shipping cost (usually free, although if you're picking it up yourself - air fare, etc; or extra for those services that provide US addresses for you) + Shipping to Aus cost + shipping insurance + 10% GST + currency conversion costs if any.
So, that should give you an idea of the difference in cost, but it doesn't include intangibles like the "hassle factor" (as I think of it).
Personally I'd like to buy locally, but when I see things like this (as a sample, no sale prices, best Aus price I've found, "random" US sites pricing):
Code:
Item | Aus Price | US Price
8" CGEM 800 | $4399 | $2199
9.25" CGEM 925HD | $5499 | $3499
11" CGEM DX 1100HD | $7499 | $3699
...I start to really consider how much extra money I'm likely to spend and the significance of the "hassle factor" drops a lot.
From the above list, I'd buy locally for the 8", probably buy locally for the 9.25" (but grumble), but for the 11" seriously consider the self-import option.