One of the biggest excuses / reasons why stuff is cheaper stateside is the sheer size of their potential market - our population is a mere 62.5 million to America's 312 million, if the same percentage of people are modellers who do you think can demand and achieve better prices form manufacturers? Works the same way here, where supermarkets can buy in such vast quantities over independent shops - they tell the manufacturers how much they will pay for an item, not ask how much it is...
Buying direct from the far east is one thing, most of the stuff is made there, buying from the US means you're picking an item that has been shipped in serious bulk numbers compared to the relative few that are shipped here. Then you stick on import duty, VAT, middleman costings etc and suddenly it becomes very expensive.
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