I agree that buyer have power too but there is disparity in resources on the buying side where the buyers are at the retail level. The "easily overcome" tricks require that consumers join the intermediate groups that a buying and otherwise participate in more complex transactions in order to defeat them. This can establish a different equilibrium that is better for consumers but it still involves an extra cost in one form or another. The intermediary takes their cut too (even a co-op would have overhead to address).
Agreed -- although the profit margins available to intermediaries will be very small. Buyers and sellers have a mutual interest in squeezing the intermediaries as much as possible. Thankfully the costs of operating an intermediary on the Internet are small.
