Eric,
I hear what you are saying completely!
I contacted OPT last week to see if they could supply me an LX90 or AS-C8GT from Celestron and they said that they couldn't do it because of specific agreements that they have wit both Meade and Celestron about shipping outside the USA. I believe they might lose their contracts with the above mentioned manufacturers if they were to circumvent the distributor "network".
Maybe they have no such obligation to Vixen, skywatcher etc?
They said they could sell to me in Aus, but only certain brands so I dunno.
Could there be import Taxes of some sort?
It is completely ridiculous, especially with the currencies so close now.
