I just went to ebay...just for fun...to see what I would have to pay for a sony 505 in Germany.
I found a seller that has decent shipping rates and everything. The problem however is, that they charge 279€ for the reader and claim that "since the device is being shipped outside the US no tax is added".
This is actually quite misleading.
US tax might not be added, but you can count on German customs adding 19$ VAT and (if you are really unlucky) another 5-10% customs.
So, if you take the 279€, add 25€ for shipping (their cheapest rate) and then add 29 percent to that (worst case)...then you pay over 390€ for the Reader.
Now, translate that to USD at the current rate of approx. 1.4 you get a whopping 550$
Nice isn't it?
If you do the whole thing yourself, buy the Reader via some US webshop that sends it to Germany, you'll pay 299$ for the Reader. Translate that to € and you get 214€. Add the 25€ for shipping, add the (worst case) 29% we calculated earlier and you pay 308€
Amazing isn't it?
What really worries me though is, that the shop selling the Readers on ebay has only one of 10 left...
Update:
this is the auction
http://cgi.ebay.de/SONY-Reader-PRS-5...QQcmdZViewItem
and this is the line that sounds very dangerously misleading to me...
Quote:
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Da der Versand aus den U.S.A. erfolgt, faellt keine Mehrwertsteuer an.
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