Print out a copy of the eBay page and take it to Allens Music.
If they agree to attempt to price match, decision made.
If they refuse to even budge on price, decision made.

Umm...

Love to support local resellers... but they have a nasty habit of congregating in malls (excuse me, I am having trouble getting my figures out of my throat) and playing games with my diminishing purchasing power.

No, I look for 'bargains' and I use eBay. For example, I recently bought Lamy fountain pens off eBay for ~AU$20 landed. That's a German Pen (with a French name) from an English reseller for close to 25% of what I'd have to pay locally. I like my pens. I don't like being scr**ed over in order to enjoy them. I assume that the UK reseller is making some profit - it seems a regular line.

Lostincanberra

Over at the camera forums I frequent, the Aussies are clearly not happy with the Aussie markups for the same gear available from US at much lower prices. The traditional argument for a higher markup is smaller customer base - cost of doing business, less buying power, yada, yada, yada. And relative Aussie dollar exchange rates. The Aussie dollar exchange is going to be on par with USD soon, so that's one argument out the door. Another is the price of stock bought - maybe they bought heaps of stock at the "old" price. Yeah.
For plugged in appliances, you've got to be aware of the 110v vs 240v difference and the plug shape and pins difference. Also, above $1000, you pay tax. And I've been the recipient of pro-rata tax - where even if your item is tax free, you are welcomed by tax because the forwarding agent cleared your item in bulk with other taxed items and did a pro-rated share of tax. Some US online shops refuse to ship outside US/Canada because of insurance differences. And eBay does have some dodgy sellers, allegedly. Your choice.

The other thing to be wary about is warranty.

Some manufacturers will only honor warranty on items purchased in their designated places of purchase.

Nikon camera equipment is one example. If you buy from say HK/US you'll have to ship it back to those places if you want warranty repairs done.

I recently bought a pair of audio-technica noise cancelling headphones through a US site. They cost me about $180 including postage. In Australia they are typically double that. It's a simple question for me - would I prefer the extra $200 in my pocket or theirs? Given that they should be able to import them in bulk cheaper than me and that I bought them from a retailer who is making their share of profit this leads me to conclude that I shouldn't be in the business of subsidising thieves.

The great thing about the internet is the reduction of information asymmetry.

It's not theft, of course (although I understand at times one feels like that, given there's such an imbalance of power between the distributor and the consumer. In the criminal law, theft is the illegal taking of another person's property without freely-given consent.

What we're seeing now, as Will point out, is that some of us - alas, still a tiny minority - have the ability with the Internet to level the playing field a little, and not consent any longer to unfair deals.

Of course, in so many ways, the manufacturers conspire with the wholesalers and retailers to pressure the consumer, first through placing unconscionable mark-ups on their own goods compared to the prices they offer in say, the US and Hong Kong (they do the same thing in Europe and UK, so we're not alone), and by applying local warranties. Why, for instance, do Canon and Nikon have international warranties on film cameras, but only local warranties on digital cameras?

Consumers need an organisation that is prepared to research and expose and lobby against these practices. The ACA is pretty much useless, unfortunately. I'm trying to get some support to set something up.