Hmm, it made me thinking that there is one more way to get it cheaper than $8 - use "value of the currency". There are many EU countries with inflation problems, where you can buy domains using their local currency - for example PLN. Currently, 8 USD is worth 32.56 PLN [0]. There are few registrars where you can get .com for 30.99 PLN [1], which is a bit cheaper than $8.