I posted this in the wrong thread, but since the two threads cover basically the same ground, I'll paste it here as well:
Prices keep sliding downward, and even so, that decline still reveals a comfortable margin for them. What their overhead looks like, I can't say, but running these businesses clearly carries extra expenses. Capitalism doesn't bother me, so how quickly things fall to rock bottom isn't something I worry about. The direction of the trend is right. What DOES worry me, though, is how quickly product quality is falling. Over the first half of this year, sterility and endo problems have kept piling up. On top of that, cloudy reta has been popping up all over the market. And in just the last 2 weeks, I've run into more zero pep or mislabeled pep than ever before, which is completely unacceptable. With so much bunk stuff floating around right now, I've skipped several really appealing buys, because I don't trust the quality and don't want the hassle, especially since we've also lately seen a rash of vendors who refuse to honor their "guarantees."
Put simply, I'd rather pay a little more and get quality product. For good stuff, the current prices and markup would satisfy me, but no price turns a bad deal into a good one if what you get in return is crap.
Luckily, I'm sitting on a decent stash of peps I bought last year. That makes it much easier to stay on the sidelines and watch whether any of them clean up their act and improve their QC. Part of me suspects those wholesale prices on the list reflect the fact that they know it's bunk and are just trying to unload it as quickly as possible.