If I need something out of the US, having friends inside the country, I send them the $$$ via paypal, they buy it, receive it, then forward it. That's an even cheaper way than third party service postage rates.
The Kindle Fires I would expect to be different, per country, because the content providers will vary. For example, the buying a Kindle Fire from the US, to use in Australia, would be useless as those providers are not the providers here. I suspect the Fire range would only ever be available within select countries that have specific digital content delivery partners with either Amazon, or approved by Amazon to provide the licensing to users.
Yep, was just reading about the Kindle Fires use in Australia: "What works perfectly in Australia? books, audiobooks, music, surf the web, run apps * and watch movies / tv shows *. Apps and movies have to be loaded into the Kindle fire via the USB cable."
There is no service provider in Australia licensed with Amazon to provide the movies and music. So its just a tablet pretty much, which there is a flood of those already.
I noticed they've also discontinued the Kindle Touch for this new Paperwhite. Will be interesting.