Re: TP755CE not in stock? - help locating suppliers ...

[dewar@GNAT.CS.NYU.EDU (Robert Dewar)]

actually in many states, it is illegal to avoid payment of sales tax
on computers ordered from out of state. Of course lots of people break
this law frequently, and an attempt to have mail order companies collect
this required sales tax was struck down by the federal courts. 

Nevertheless, what you are saying at least for some states is that IBM
should recognize that most people are going to break the law anyway, so
there is no point in them offering educational discounts.

Actualy the whole attitude is a bit arrogant in the sense that sure, you
can deal fine with mail order, and so can I, but the great majority of
students shopping at the NYU bookstore definitely need teh help of a
knowledgable sales person to help them, and want to shop locally.

I certainly think the sales tax argument is therefore bogus. I do agree
that educational discount prices on hardware are usually too low to be
interesting. What I see at the NYU bookstore is that Mac prices are
actually higher than the street prices in NYC, and the IBM prices are
a little lower.

Of course one thing you have to realize is that the bookstore marks up
their EDU prices. The EDU prices you get from IBM of course take this
into account for direct buying). Just as IBM charges list for ordinary
customers, so as not to complete with the channel, they will charge some
notional "educational list" price [does not actually exist as such], so as
not to compete with the educational bookstore channel. That certainly
makes sense, as FAR more machines are sold at university bookstores than
at the EDU price from IBM direct, so IBM certainly does not want to compete
with that channel.

Your complaint is really similar to complaining that the normal non-EDU
prices are higher than mail-order prices, well of course they are. If you
are interested in getting the best possible price on anything, it is rarely
the case that you buy direct from the manufacturer, because they cannot
afford to compete with the channel.