I'm planning an e-commerce website to sell computer components. Since I'm still in the planning phase, I've been investigating inventory sources (wholesale destributers). My investigation has revealed that many of my would be competitors on the web are selling products at or below the price quoted to me by wholesalers. Being a first time business owner, I'm not exactly sure how the competition can come about this. In my mind I've narrowed down the possibilities as follows:

- The wholesalers that I've investigated are price gouging.
- The competition is dealing in mass quantities to earn discounts.
- The competition is making up the difference somehow by inflating
the price of other items.
- The competition has a better source of inventory.

Can anyone shed some light on this subject?

CMD