I think it all depends on their expenses and overhead. I know when my biz partner and i were 'dealing' from 1997-2003, you could make up to 300% return on a game sale but that was a loooooong time ago. Today, i think someone who flips or sells games, has employees and rent to pay, etc is facing some hard times.
In some cases and probably related to a few dealers who frequent these boards, many of them seem to have endless amounts of storage that may be paid off so essentially it turns into a hoarding thing where they just hold onto it until it sells. The right sucker (ahem...buyer) will come along eventually, it will just take longer.
The exception to that rule is some games are just priced way over what any sane person would pay. In the end, i'm just glad I got out of the retail side of selling games when I did...i saw the collapse and saturation and new the window of opportunity would be closing fast. I think the same could be said for a lot of industries right about now.
Just when I think I may have it rough, I think about all the businesses that employees to pay... It's gotta be hard when so many people count on that paycheck and things continue to slow regardless of marketing efforts. No thanks....
The overhead is what makes me curious. Some of these sellers have huge warehouses and sizable staff. That's all got to take a huge chunk of any profit they make.
People who are successful in that business have to be few and far between. No offense to anyone doing it. I think a lot of folks still in it got their lives invested in it by operating games 'back in the day' when that made a lot of money.
I wonder how much Vintage Arcade is making off the arcade at Disneyland. If he splits that 50/50 with Disney it must be a lot. That place has got to be a gold mine.