I dont think it is fair to say someone will always beat your price.
Depends on the item.
Certain items are very hard to make a profit on. Such as Ipods, as there are the ipod freebie sites.
Or Blueray DVDs as many are selling them off from their DVD player purchases and then selling the Blueray machines.
Or memory, as many are getting them real cheap from the rebates being offered and then selling the memory for 50 bucks for 2gig pc6400.
You have to build/find a relationship with a wholesale supplier.
And no one will tell you the real good ones as they keep them for themselves.
Most likely the ones selling the CPUs real cheap, work for the REAL wholesaler and is getting them as a perk at the lowest mark down.
And some people are involved in criminal activity
and stealing the items for re-sale. This happens a lot more than people think. What more anonymous
place to do this then on eBay.
You also have the Staples and BestBuy employees grabbing up the below wholesale clearouts at a quarter on the dollar. I know for a fact this happens.
And then you have the high tech employees that get a high ticket item as a promo piece and selling it off on eBay.
And then you have liquidators like Jimmy.
You have to find a steady supply and dont try to beat every price as there are fluctuations in product availability. Get steady suppliers max out your store. They will come.