[This is hitting on the head! People got spoiled by the internet and people that aren't trying to make a living being okay with making 5$ a ball.]
Yes, perhaps we did get "spoiled", but it happened. And, as much as you (and others) hate to hear it, perhaps the day of the full time professional proshop has already come and gone. I really don't like it either, but it is looking more and more like this every day.
Granted, there are still pockets where a limited number of shops could still be supported, but those areas are often FLOODED with far too many people trying to share a market that won't support ALL of them.
The internet is here folks, and it is here to stay. It has FOREVER changed the way people shop, recreate, and interact.
I don't know if its a good thing or a bad thing, but it is a fact. At this point, I don't know if what the manufacturers are doing is going to have a positive effect or not. I highly doubt it.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again, there are far too many people (manufacturers, distributors, salesmen, and proshops) trying to make a full time living off of a part time industry and doing it on the backs of the consumer by over-inflating prices, then trying to force those prices down our throats.
I understand peoples desire to make a living doing what they want/chose. I would love to be in the proshop business also. Sadly, this isn't always the case and, if you're in the proshop industry, you are in an artificial market that has been created by lies from the manufacturers who were/are interested in lining nobodies pockets but their own, and have done so by flooding the artificial market they created with merchandise that they discontinue quickly so that they can release the NEXT batch, leaving you to flounder in the morass they created for you.
