How to order a Nexus 4 from Germany when Google doesn't sell devices in your country

This post is an evolving description of an attempt I'm making to buy a Nexus 4 through the German play.google.com store for delivery in Belgium. Scroll down for instructions.

The first device I ordered in the US was my Nexus One in 2010. At that time, the Google Store wasn't integrated in the Android ecosystem. All it took to order the device was to use a proxy to pretend you're browsing from the US and to use www.borderlinx.com as a mail forwarding service to get a postal address in the States.

The second device I ordered in the US was the Nexus 7. This time around it was more difficult. Google  was not only checking the location of my computer, but the payment was integrated with Google Checkout, which also checks the location of credit cards issued. This means that all credit cards that are not issued in the US are refused. A first attempt at trying to link my Paypal account to Checkout failed miserably: Google detected there were was no payment service behind my Paypal account that allowed address verification. A second attempt was to use a US issued virtual credit card. This also failed, since these credit cards don't provide address verification. A fourth attempt with a more serious provider of virtual credit cards ended when the issuer asked for a copy of my US drivers license or bank account statement. The fifth attempt was finally successful  The www.comgateway.com BuyForMe service worked fast, but was quite expensive. The original device price of $199 became €268,15 (all shipping, taxes and handling included).

The third device I'm going to try to order tomorrow is the Nexus 4. The device will not only be available in the US, but also in Belgium's neighbors France and Germany. Since I have the most experience with ecommerce in Germany, I'll be trying the German store first. The process should go as follows:

1. surf to play.google.com via http://www.german-proxy.de/ You need to use a proper proxy, not a web proxy. I found one on http://www.proxynova.com/proxy-server-list/country-de/. 85.195.83.217 on port 3128. Configure it in your OS as 'secure web proxy'.
2. order the device by creating a new account using your existing account. (apparently Google doesn't mind you having lived in another country before :)
3. pay with my Belgian credit card. I hope credit card address verification is not in use yet in Europe due to privacy restrictions. If that doesn't work, I'll order a virtual credit card at http://www.mywirecard.com/mastercard.html (The third alternative is their Visa card, but that is only sold in physical format in German shops). UPDATE: I made a test order using a Nexus 7. My current credit card was refused. I deleted the credit card from my account and re-entered the data. I needed to provide a German billing address for the credit card. I used my German address from step 4 for this. It got accepted. (although is might not clear on the actual payment, since I didn't push the final 'kaufen' button on my test order). 
4. ship the device through my German postal address created using http://www.mailboxde.com/. UPDATE: This got accepted without any problem in my test order.
5. pay the customs tax via DHL. (they will call you up so you can give your credit card data by phone) UPDATE: No customs tax inside the EU, of course.

If this doesn't work, I already found an alternative to the US-based BuyForMe service from Comgateway in Germany. www.AddressGermany.com is willing to order and ship the Nexus 4 to Belgium for €466. I guess they are miscalculating a bit, since their site claims they only charge 10% handling fee + €9 per package + €8,6 DHL costs. Should I be needing this service, I'll ask them to recalculate their cost before ordering in the US again through Comgateway.

Let's hope the first approach will work. I'll update this blogpost as I find out more.


UPDATE 07/01/2013:
My Nexus 4 finally arrived. The total cost was €13,49 + €358,99 = €372,48
I ordered it through a proxy in the German play store, paid with my Belgian Mastercard (KBC Bank issued) and shipped it to Belgium using mailboxde.com.