Amazon adds $2 to most (at one time all) international book prices. This pays, no doubt, for the added cost of business in those countries - added paperwork, business taxes, accountants and programmers they have to hire, the use of the cellular service (not everyone avoids all use of their 3G and it isn't used only for deliveries) in countries that charge more than the US and added payouts to publishers in each country (they may have to pay a different publisher than here in the states, even if the listing is the same, which they have to track, even if it is done electronically, there are setup and maintenance costs involved).
You can also get "delivery" multiple times and never pay extra (which means there isn't much reason to avoid using the 3G and the Kindle will do so automatically if wi-fi isn't available).
VAT, of course, you can't get around without that extra cost being tacked on. So far, Canada and the UK have managed to become large enough and low cost enough that the $2 fee has disappeared...
|