I have imported one of the 208 liter pots in the past and stopped short of ordering more than one for the following reasons:
1. Postage is calculated by the volume of the item - Unless you can stack smaller Blichmann pots inside larger ones, you will not get much postage benefits from a bulk buy. If you ship a smaller one inside a larger one, you would have to re-pack it and there is an increased risk of damaging fittings. Considering the pots have handles and fittings, I would expect that you could only fit a 75 liter or smaller one insde the 208 liter pot. I would have saved $120 overall in postage if I posted two pots but it would have
2. As already mentioned on this thread, after crossing over $1K in value (including postage and freight forwarding fees), GST is applicable and I do know that some goods can attract extra import duties - Not sure about pots but I know with car parts you pay import duties - This is something to do some more research on. The larger the shippment, the greater the chance you will be pinged with GST and if applicable with import duties.
I used a freight forwarding company iRetailUSA who charged $297 for postage and $46 forwarding fees as a percentage of the transaction. The whole pot was delivered for sub $1K which is still quite expensive, however the pot is very good and it represents a 25% saving over the local dealer who has not adjusted their pricing in line with the currency variations.
Beyond the incumbant distributor for Blichmann, there was another more HBS who was looking at becoming a distributor. He would be likely to provide much better deals which are aligned with currency movements unlike the current distributer.
If you got the pots wholesale from Blichmann direct and imported them by the container load, you would be able to get them landed here much cheaper, however this would take quite a bit more co-ordination and you would have to widen the scope to fermenters and other equipment.
Regards
Roller