^This to both swinks and retropin. 

Just to muddy the price structure waters even more, Stern distros in the US are also subject to what is called MAP (minimum advertised pricing). A nice way of circumventing price fixing legislation.

This is why so many of the medium sized distros sell by way of forums with a caveat of "email me for price". They can do a far better deal without Stern HQ getting wind of it and without a nearby competitor immediately knocking another couple hundred off their advertised price in order to get the sale.

The discount I got on my imported BIBLE was enough to cover shipping costs from the US and then some and still overall came in under AMD retail pricing ex Sydney.

Who said competition was a bad thing? The ones with the market monopoly.