Is it best to buy FCP Studio directly from Apple or shop around? It's on my list of upgrades this year.
The reason not to get the Academic version is that there's likely to be an FCP update during 2011 or early 2012 and I presume that Jeff would be both inclined to upgrade and disinclined to pay the full price again.
I got my copy a couple of weeks ago and ended up shelling out £450 for it off Amazon. I daren't use eBay, but if you're that sort of crazy adrenalin junky then you can probably bag a copy for about £300...
$795 for the latest Final Cut Pro is a good price. Apple employees get it for $500 and I would have bought it that way (a good friend works for Apple) had I owned a mac. But I am a PC guy.