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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;-jeffB, post: 3078645, member: 27832&quot;]And if you can see that a seller is charging $X to a dealer, but $1.5X to you, wouldn&#039;t you want in on the lower price, too?</p><p><br /></p><p>My father spent most of his working life at a plumbing and heating wholesaler. He used to get annoyed at the people who walked in off the street and wanted to buy supplies at the same price contractors paid.</p><p><br /></p><p>But then Lowe&#039;s Hardware came to town, offering those low prices to <i>everyone.</i> Not only did the public stop bugging my dad&#039;s company, but <i>contractors</i> discovered that they could often get stuff cheaper at Lowe&#039;s than from the &quot;wholesale distributor&quot;.</p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disintermediation" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disintermediation" rel="nofollow">Disintermediation</a> is <i>terrible</i> for the people who make their living as &quot;the man in the middle&quot; -- industrial distributors, travel agents, and perhaps coin dealers. And it <i>can</i> produce lower prices, because the cut(s) that once went to middlemen no longer get added to the price.</p><p><br /></p><p>On the other hand, since more sales are direct, the <i>seller</i> is getting more of the sale price. So &quot;falling prices&quot; at retail don&#039;t necessarily mean falling <i>values</i> for what you already hold.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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