Buyers will try to maximise what they can get for their money. If the savings are more than about 10% then warranty becomes irrelevant because the odds of needing it are probably less than 10%. That is unless the buyer likes to gamble when the odds are stacked against them. ("Neddy doesn't believe in insurance. He considers it a form of gambling."
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If I can afford to support local vendors then I will. But there comes a point where one cannot justify paying so much more: normally willing to pay up to 30% mark-up, but anything approaching 50%, e.g. $800 online vs $1200 local, forget it!
But what I tend to find is that if I make the effort to shop around and actually contact enough Aussie vendors (not just browse websites), they will either get me a good deal, or give good advice on where to buy. These are the best kind of vendors.
Like AEC, whom I asked about Nikon NAV-SWs a couple of months back and they told me (verbatim as far as I recall our phone conversation): "Don't buy those from us because we're very expensive [Aussie dollar etc]. You're better off buying directly from Japan." I got similar advice from Matt at Telescopes & Astronomy regarding binoviewers. Can't beat honesty for earning a customer's loyalty. These vendors have also supplied me with excellent value for money equipment in the past btw.
Re Bintel, I don't know what they're like these days. I'm in Melbourne and sorry to have learned recently that Roger Davis is no longer running that shop. He loved a chat about scope building and helped me out on many occasions, just because he loved doing so, not because he wanted to make a sale. He'd often fix me up with spares from his personal collection of scope bits.
