[pmiller2]

Funny you should mention that 30% number. That seems to be a kind of magic number where, for gross margins below that, you probably don't have a viable (small) business, in general.

For example, I've had discussions with people in one of my hobbies about this. It's a collecting hobby, so, being involved on the dealer side consists of obtaining inventory, marketing it to collectors, and selling for a profit. I've been told that you should always have at least a 30% gross margin on inventory, unless it's stuff you want to blow out because it's been sitting too long. In practice, what this means is you buy at somewhere between 60-75% of retail, normally (you can afford a smaller margin when you already have a client lined up to buy the exact thing you have, but that's not the typical case for a lot of dealers).