Out of Pod Experience

So i was wondering why it is cheaper not to buy game time through eve-online.com


Currently, 30 days cost 19.95 EURO (there's an offer for 17.49 EURO atm.) while 60 days go for 34.99 EURO.
However if you hop over to a GTC reseller such as Shattered Crystal you can get 60 days for only 26 EURO. (converted from 35$)
(Note: A 60 day GTC from Shattered Crystal can be converted to 2 PLEX)


So through Shattered Crystal you can save 9 EURO (12 USD) on a bi-monthly basis. This strikes me a bit odd, but surely there would be a benefit to buying bulk through the Eve management page.

12 Months gametime via Eve-online.com = 209.94 EURO
12 Months gametime via Shattered Crystal = 156 EURO

So no.. There's no benefit to using a long term payment plan on the Account Management page.


But wait! My Eve Online RSS feed tells me there's a sale on!

So 30 plex is sold in bulk for 449.99 EURO on eve-online.com
To get this extreme amount of playtime from shattered crystal you pay 390 EURO total. Thats 60 EURO less than the "Extra Special offer" CCP is currently promoting.



So why is it so much cheaper to just buy the GTC's from a reseller than directly from CCP. If you know please share your knowledge below.

Clarification:

12 months via CC one-round sub is ~131 EUR or ~176 USD, and that only gets you ~10 months of gametime (5x GTC) on SC or similar sites, so you're still better off with a sub.

History:

A long time ago, CCP decided that the subs should not be expressed in ISK (Icelandic Kronur) and converted into whatever currency you might try to buy them in, but instead charge people either USD or EUR, depending on location (outside the EU or within the EU). Back in that day, 1 USD plus corresponding VAT was roughly equal to 1 EUR. They kept the prices equal in different currencies regardless of how the currency exchange rates have fluctuated in time.

When you buy a pair of PLEX (or a GTC) from within the EU and pay 35 EUR to CCP (or whatever EU-based GTC retailer you pick), they're only keeping around 27.8 EUR (at the current exchange rate, around 37.4 USD), the rest they pay as VAT (Icelandic VAT is 25.5% for this class of goods AFAIK).
When you buy it from outside the EU for 35 USD, they don't have to pay VAT and get to keep the entire sum in USD. So, basically, at the current exchange rate, it's pretty much the same story as it was when this "system" was introduced.

Well, actually, they get to keep even less than that in both cases thanks to other taxes, but those other taxes also apply when they sell a GTC outside the EU for USD, so they sort of cancel eachother out.

The catch :

The non-EU based resellers are actually sort of dipping deep into the grey areas (borderline tax evasion) when they are selling a person inside the EU a GTC without charging VAT, but since it's a purely electronically delivered good it's not like there's a lot of proof, nor can the customs office stop the delivery or charge you extra for it.