Where to buy discounted products?

[sparkplug]

I've been shopping for a software package and it's taken me to eBay. There are several sellers that sell "brand new, but open box" products and they sell at respectable prices. The buyer saves some money, but I'm sure the seller is making very decent money.

My question is, where are these eBay sellers getting their inventory to sell? Whenever I look for an item on eBay, there are always several private sellers (non-businesses) who have several of their items for sale at discounted prices. I bought a KitchenAid food processor a few months ago and there were numerous people on eBay selling them for just over half the retail price. They must've gotten them from somewhere!

My main question is, where do people like us buy these products so we don't have to go through another middleman that is the eBay seller?

[BeoWulfz]

Most items thats people sell on Ebay are Store returns that were returned with no damage so they resell I know alot of people that buy out Returned mechandise from store owners and resell them for profit..

I have come to realize that at the rate that people keep growing selling this stuff ebays gunna have alot of problems because some of the returned items MAY actually be a safty hazard and/or dangerous/broken