I doubt they are price gouging on shipping and taking a cut.

Its far more likely they air ship it to a location where they can then have the local delivery companies then do a 1 day priority business delivery. And there can be a ton of reasons for this that also includes the impact on the company's business especially considering Vive is basically the only other key product other than the new Google pixel phone which they have not begun shipping yet since its not on sale yet.

A company that's basically banking on two key products that are basically brand new is a company that's barely floating in the water. The only thing is that the owner is the heiress to a petro company so she has the cash, but this is her husband's venture and she's put a lot of money into this company before.

Anyways my point is that assuming you're being price gouged on shipping of all things is not how shipping works. Their phones have been in the market for a decade and are likely already in every country that can be bought so the logistics are there in place. The demand for phones is also high. When VR is being bought at enough rate to warrant shipping shit pre-emptively then fine. Right now they are basically telling customers to pay for shipping which is basically what most retailers do until you are so big and have so many customers that you can offer "free shipping deals" like Amazon and then lose money on shipping but gain money through purchases.