On the other hand, because forum members would put their negotiated best accepted prices here, so OEM XS probably got less than they expected. Many times I think they were using a model with very low margin but quick sale to balance the book.
I still remember at one time a best accepted price of $250 was posted here for a brand new 2U server, then someone bought all the remaining 17 that day. I doubt OEM XS made much $$ over that. I guess STH's contribution is to reduce their in stock pressure so they can free more resource (warehouse/money) for some thing new, and then suckers like us keep buying.