Amazon Arbitrage: Part 2

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post called "Amazon Arbitrage" about how I found an item that was $70 pre-shipping on Amazon.com for $32 post-shipping on Amazon.co.uk.  Turns out the joke's on me.

I got an email this morning informing me that Amazon was "unable" to obtain the book, which was just published in June.

Apparently sales they must have not done a lot of sales because it is ranked #1,005,832 on Amazon.com and #137,153 on Amazon.co.uk.  By comparison, Man Walks into a Pub: A Sociable History of Beer, also by Pete Brown ranked #395,371 in the US and #11,254 in the UK.  (It is also #6 under the category of Books > Food & Drink > Drinks & Beverages > Beer, which we don't even have in the US).

Full text is below:
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Dear Customer,

Greetings from Amazon.co.uk.

We regret to inform you that we have been unable to obtain the following item:

 Pete Brown "Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire"

This item has now been cancelled from your order #203-2653883-6631506 and we can confirm that you have not been charged for it.

We are no longer able to offer this item for sale. Our supplier has informed us that this item has been discontinued and is no longer available.

Please accept our apologies for any disappointment or inconvenience caused.

If you took advantage of a promotional offer when placing this order, this cancellation may affect your order's eligibility for that offer.  If you discover this to be the case, please contact customer service so that we may investigate.  You can send an e-mail to customer service from the following URL:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/contact-us

This item may be available from an Amazon.co.uk Marketplace seller. The availability of the item will be indicated in a blue box that says "More Buying Choices" on the top right-hand side of the product's information page. The links in this box lead to lists of new, used, refurbished and collectable copies of that particular item. To buy the item click the yellow "Buy from Seller" button and fill in the requested information to complete your purchase.

To view the current status and the costs associated with your order, please visit Your Account (http://www.amazon.co.uk/your-account).

Thank you for shopping at Amazon.co.uk, we hope to see you again.

Please note: This e-mail was sent from a notification-only address that
cannot accept incoming e-mail. Please do not reply to this message.

Sincerely,

Customer Service Department
Amazon.co.uk
http://www.amazon.co.uk

Amazon Arbitrage

It turns out the same item might have a completely different price at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk (or presumably any one of Amazon's other five country sites).  I'm not talking about a few dollar or percentage points either: I recently purchased Hops and Glory: One Man's Search for the Beer That Built the British Empire, as a chanukah present for one of my beer-loving friends.  The page that suggested it provided a link to Amazon.co.uk, which I thought was odd because it is a US-based site.  Searching for the same book on Amazon.com I found the following amazing result:  The Amazon.com price was more than twice as expensive, even after shipping was factored in.  See pictures below (note that the UK price includes shipping and gift-wrapping:

In this global era, when accessing international catalogs (websites) requires only the conscious effort to do so, it makes you wonder what else you could save money on by ordering from abroad (and whether there isn't a business idea here).