So on the WWE your saying AMD make about $800? Out of that they have to bring the container in and look after warranty yeah?  Not alot really.

No.. that is the recommended sale price... NOT the wholesale price that the game is bought at.
It generally goes like this... Stern make a machine and sell at a wholesale price to distributors. They then RECOMMEND that the distributors sell at RRP which is normally a 30% on average mark up. Its then up to the distributors whether they want to sell above or below that RRP.
Depending on the agents business model, they either sell in numbers at a lower price or small at a higher price.
The $800 quoted is above and beyond the % mark up figure.. and as you quite rightly point out, they have shipping costs to consider.
But $800 per machine???

In general terms, it would appear that pinball machines could be sold in Australia cheaper than they currently are and a healthy profit maintained.
What we need is the $$ figure that a Stern distributor can buy at... find that out and you could conclusively state whether the cow is being milked or not.
Problem is that we have had previous threads where Australian customers have bought SINGLE machines from USA distributors and shipped them over individually and STILL come under the AMD sell price.. and that would include the distributor making his profit and shipping the most expensive way... not looking good for the cow!