Anything longwave infrared, aside from scanners(as far as I'm aware), that is capable of producing an
output(see: FLIR E4/5/6/8 with a 60Hz sensor but locked in hardware to 9) of above 9Hz,
requires one or more(depending on the device) license from one(or more) US governmental agencies.
It either falls under ITAR(Dual-Use), EAR(Dual-Use as per Wassenaar), or USML(separate).
Both the PM695 and the Ti55 fall under one or more of these restrictions.
However, as you are in Italy, you are within the European Union(which has more lax regulation), and your country falls under the BIS STA exemption.
See this, page 6:
https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/forms-documents/compliance-training/export-administration-regulations-training/596-license-exception-sta/fileTherefore, a US seller is authorised to ship a camera to you
as the end user(this must be confirmed) without obtaining a license. By shipping it to you without you signing and end-use document(one-sided, no need for approval), as far as my understanding goes, they did break the law, but not as severely as exporting an item without a license.
A lot of these regulations are often broken and ignored - mostly by individual sellers that don't even know they exist(logically, why would you regulate a camera?). Most of the time, nothing bad comes of it, however if one decides to start selling thermal in major quantities, or worse yet - participating in the export themselves(flying out, etc), they can expect to get, at the very least, a bankrupting fine(hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars), or at worst, an extreme prison sentence.
Please note that
I am neither a lawyer, nor from the US, and therefore might be wrong on some points.
As for 320x240 for $500 - yes, they exist. The Seek Compact PRO FF does 320x240 @ ~15-20Hz(regulated, "X" on the end of product code) or 9Hz(unregulated) for $500. It's a very noisy and small sensor though.
Used cameras can also be picked up for around that much.