I've used to look the UK prices for Pentax photo equipent published in Practical Photography in 1997-2001 as being the same as those in US, but only in pounds as opposed to $$.
>From the what I heard recently on PDML, they became even higher. However, I also see a sudden price increase on "good" mid-level priced Pentax lenses on E-Bay in January. It might be a fluctuation though. There is not enough statistics yet to make any conclusion yet. Igor