In fact someone I know bought furniture on line from an out of state vendor- spent 5 figures. Sure enough, about a year or so later he got a tax bill for use tax from his own state. Admittedly,,this is the first and only instance of such an occurrence I've heard of, but to doubters, technically, you buy in state, the vendor collects the tax and send it to,the state and if you buy out of state, you collect the tax for your home state and send it to your home state.
Would you be more likely to buy new gear out of state if there was no sales tax
There is a retailer that advertises in the Absolute Sound that you can buy gear from him without paying sales tax. He is located in Delaware where they don't have sales tax. Being from California that would save me 9.5 percent off the top and that is without even negotiating. I don't know if he charges for shipping or not but it seems like it could be beneficial.