Is there a reason why the price on BTC-E is so much lower than the other exchanges? It's currently trading at $1018 while Bitstamp is $1054. The Chinese exchanges are even higher. Couldn't someone just buy on BTC-E and sell on Bitstamp? I'm assuming I'm missing something so if someone could explain this to me it would be much appreciated!
Have you actually tried depositing USD into your BTC-E account? Just try do it and you will understand the reason why. It is either very costly or very inconvenient to do, depending on where you live and what transfer options you have.. On the other hand selling BTC and withdrawing USD is relatively easier.
Don't know about convenience, but wire transfers are surely not cheap.
https://btc-e.com/fees Deposit fee Withdraw fee
International wire transfer 0.5%, min $20 fee 1%, min $100 fee
There are some cheaper options, such as OK pay and other (I've never heard about before), but these may be charging their own fees.
@OP, on top of that you have to take into account the exchange fees on both BTC-E/Bitstamp (think it's 0.2% on both) and consider rather low BTC/USD volume on BTC-E.