I have always been of the mind that Campagnolo USA was a separate entity from Campagnolo S.r.I.. I always figured that US prices were higher because Campy USA got the same price from the factory as everyone else and then applied their markup. Like someone previously said, Campy is making/selling the stuff at max capacity and I can't imagine that the price is different for anyone who has permission to purchase at the factory counter. It sounds to me to be a heavy handed ploy by Campy USA to try to level the playing field in the US... good luck with that... Does anyone even know what percentage of Campy's global sales are in the US?