In the pictures the shade of purple does seem to be slightly different, although it could just be the lighting perhaps or it might vary slightly case-by-case?
And unfortunately I don’t know any UK to US middleman services. You could try to make a thread in the Just A Question? or General section to ask if a member from the UK is willing to help you out being a middleman. There are a bunch of active UK members, so perhaps one is willing to help you buy this from the Pokémon Center. If not, I’m sure there are some middleman services available from the UK to US.
EDIT: Ah, I see you already have made that thread. Let’s hope someone responds to it.
Greetz,
Quuador