HRoth - 5:16 pm on Jan 4, 2013 (gmt 0)

I posted a while ago about a would-be competitor who was making and selling a widget that I sell, only he was charging literally 1/2 of what I charge, and his packaging is more expensive and heavier to ship--and the shipping Amazon allows on it is 1/2 what my shipping is (mine is about 1 dollar above actual postage). After looking at Amazon the other day to sell some used books, I figured out that his gross profit on that item would be four dollars, and the packaging is over a dollar. So he is making three dollars on the widget, which I know would not even cover the ingredients, much less the labor. I don't know what he was thinking, but from reading some threads on Facebook, some folks get the idea that if they start selling at a loss, then they will be able to attract customers and gradually raise their prices. Thing is they will attract customers who want cheap. I noticed the other day that he had decided not to continue to sell on Amazon. The whole thing taught me a lesson; don't worry about people who are pricing themselves out of business. Make more stuff instead.