What shipong cost does is eliminate the cheaper guns. You can't pay 1000 for a gun and then another 1000 on shipping it home unless the gun is worth well over 2000. Plus you are buying a bit of an unknown and may find it needs a bit of tiding up as they say. For that reason I try to have someone over there pick it up and go over it before it gets shipped. That adds extra cost but does give me peace of mind that I am not shipping a basket case.