No it is not "fundamental". It is hard to believe but some companies still produce their own original products to sell.
@BLinux is reselling commodity products at 3-4 times the price than other sellers. The only reason he gets away with charging that much more is by spreading
FUD in his videos. I have talked to quite a few people who after watching his infamous "how to spot fakes" video were scared to buy from anyone else. I am arguing that it was exactly the intended effect of the video. Just few comments above I have linked another thread on this very forum where a new member described his hesitation to buy an adapter from a local seller just because it looked slightly different (same model, different revision) from the unit listed in the art of server ebay store.
I have explained why I believe that his video is FUD in
the same thread.
This part is not even relevant to the conversation.
Are you kidding me? Most of what is sold today has been purchased at a cheaper price. Most retail or even ebay products are at the tail end of a long distribution channel of b2b sellers you never even see. Even companies like CDW and Provantage buy from larger distributors like Ingram Micro which, imagine this,
they sell to CDW and Provantage with a markup! How insane is that? No it's not--it's just the normal multi-level distribution system that many industries all over the globe use to bring products to their customers.
OMG! 3-4 times! So when I was buying Honda Civic radiators for $25 and selling them at $110 that was a crime?!? No, it wasn't. It was the markup needed to sustain my business, which barely eeked out a net of 7% of gross sales even with a 4x markup on certain parts like the aforementioned Civic radiator. If you think this is the exception to the rule, think again--almost every level of distribution
requires a 100% markup to cover overhead. It's why the $25 radiator I was buying started at $5 at the factory in China. And round and round it goes, no matter what industry you're in.
If you're trying to say you're not personally attacking, it's the worse example of a non-personal attack I've seen. If you don't agree with what someone has produced in videos that they believe are true and that their customers find value, then don't buy the product being sold. It's like me getting pissed every time I see a General Motors automotive commercial talk about 'quality' (GM quality is a joke in the USA). The beauty of capitalism is that if a weasel is actually a weasel, they will eventually not have any customers and be out of business. Most businesses HAVE to bring something of value to their customers whether by their product, their support, or their price, just to name a few dimensions. It's one of the reasons there are companies that can sell products at MSRP. I would think that's a ripoff, but it makes sense to certain people in certain situations and who am I to judge what is best for them.
And related, this is why a consumer has to have done their homework and be saavy on some level. Gone are the days of asking for something and having no clue about it and a salesperson taking the time to give you all the information for you to make a properly informed decision. Today, you have to look at every piece of information you see as 'marketing material' and find your own truth in it. If you can't do this very basic level due diligence, then you will never find the best deal or perfect product no matter if is an HBA, a radiator, or a car.