I have the feeling that he has realised that, and that's why he's being nice all of a sudden. He hasn't left a negative, which I feel, I don't deserve.
I think the other so called region 1 DVDs he's bought, were the generic region free DVDs that are marked as region 1.
$9 sounds right, I was looking at buying RAM on US ebay, as it's a lot cheaper and a couple of sellers quoted $9 for international postage. The honest ones that is.
Paying $9 US is fine for the more expensive items that are a lot cheaper there, but with the less expensive stuff, the $9 cuts profit margin to the bare minimum. And if you buy in bulk or wholesale, the postage obviously is a lot more expensive.