Another question is why is apple merchandise so much more expensive in Europe? Most european countries have around 20% VAT, but the prices sometimes are even 50% higher.
Ditto for Sweden. iPod touch 2K/3K/4K SEK (http://store.apple.com/se/browse/home/shop_ipod/family/ipod_...). But $1 ~ 7.2 SEK so it's about 40% more expensive. Lots of things were priced to the convenient round number: a can of coke was 10 SEK ($1.40), a sandwich would be 50 SEK ($7), so it was convenient but very expensive compared to US.
So, order abroad and be done with it. One more reason Apple doesn't want people to order more than 2 ipads I guess, it will cut in to their future profits.
In fact I just did. Bought a high-end pen tablet on ebay from a seller in the US. Even including overseas shipping, it was half the asking price here, so I felt lucky. The only problem, the package arrived with the box tampered and the tablet itself missing. So I am now stuck with a grip pen and a bunch of driver CD's :)
Thanks, I really felt depressed that day. Not as much about the money (although it put a dent in my ramen budget), as the feeling of being robbed of a new toy :)
Yes, since it was Express Mail, it was automatically insured for 100 bucks.
Example:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/47700/?cc=US
http://store.steampowered.com/app/47700/?cc=DE
(I know this isn't true for everything, but it certainly feels that way)