Enough with the shipping thing, that is a canard at best. No one wants to ship high value goods internationally, forgetting the subtext about whether one needs to pay tax or declare if bringing something physically into the country or not, there are many places in the world where shipping means, days of customs hassles, and all sorts of other issues on top of taxes. Again if something is used or not greatly impacts its customs value/tax. There are many countries that exempt a personal computer, if it is "used". So you buy one and get the VAT back, use it and bring it back to your country, and there is no customs tax, whether a $200 Chromebook, or a maxed out gaming book, or Macbook. That is something you cannot do if you are shipping in such a way. (and yes I have witnessed parents with kids all carrying shopping bags straight from the Apple store filled with thousands of dollars worth of unopened equipment to open everything up and use their purchases before hitting customs at their home airports....There is nothing stupider than seeing a Brazilian or Turkish person arrive home with a gigantic Hermes bag or whatever that they are carrying whoa re surprised that they are always being picked on by customs when coming home!)