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I am a US merchant and I get tons of requests from Australia for products, most of which go nowhere when the freight is calculated. Unless bringing in a container full of scopes by sea, the freight to ship a single scope is huge and it can exceed $1000USD for an air shipment of a large heavy scope if shipped by air (remember your local merchant may have paid that if getting a special-order scope from the US companies).
Add to that the prohibition for us to ship certain brands (such as Meade or Celestron) outside the US, and the fact that the warranty can only be valid if shipped back to the US merchant (for which you would pay freight 2 ways).
Then there is customs clearance, which may be duty-free but likely to have a brokerage fee.
You might save 10%, ultimately, by the time it's delivered to your door.
With a lot more risk and trouble.
As an aside, it is true that US dealers operate on a smaller markup because prices are set by the distributors, and they are set too low. We don't like it, and wages in the astronomy business over here are very low. It is tough to retain personnel because of the low wages. And competition here is cut-throat. I have competitors who offer free freight to consumers and pay the local taxes for the customer, yet still accept a credit card as payment (which costs the retailer a few %). I regularly have to match prices to make a sale where the resultant profit margin is 1% or even cost.
I can't stay in business by doing that, and I'm glad it isn't that common.
I wish the industry would allow the US merchants a better margin, but the overall small size of the market guarantees that if prices would actually float upwards to realistic levels that 1/2 of the retailers would go out of business. We don't sell necessities, and it is low prices that enable us to make enough sales to stay in business.
If you have great service from local shops and you can rely on their expertise, then such merchants are worth supporting.
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