(looks across the room....nope....this won't be well received.)
I am a flipper. With the notable exception of one enhancement I do not create anything.
I profit from your, and many others, impatience.
I am the very person you hate. The Cancer as it were.
I agree with you that the woman is very greedy and that is an unfortunate situation. I googled, because you knew I had to, and it is quite the little enterprise. Reminds me of Beanie Babies.
This is not at all what I do though.
I buy my birdhouse at $12, relist for 12.50 and you, or someone like you, feel the need to pay 20...often times even higher.
As an example from in game, at one point Purples were averaging a sale price of 15 million. I would purchase for 10, list for a little over 11 and profit. There is no need to spend 15 unless you need to have the IO at that exact second. Willing to wait a few hours bid 12. Willing to wait a few days sometimes bid 10. Want it now bid 15.
Prices have increased somewhat which was only natural. Almost a year with farmers and non farmers alike generating influence. The last time I looked, which was admittedly a Cpl weeks back the Purples were ranging from 25-35. That is simply the way an economy works.
That doesn't matter to me because the math is the same regardless of what price level we are discussing.. In fact now you have the math too. Buy at 10, list at 11, sell for 15. There are some exceptions to the rule naturally and markets do fluctuate. I'm not saying that you should become a Flipper yourself but now you no longer need to pay those prices. Your choice going forward.
The items I purchase are at the price the seller is willing to sell at. I personally list all my drops at 1. Doesn't matter what it is. If I receive 1279 influence for my LoTG recipe I have to be satisfied with that. I list at that level as I don't want to go to the bother of researching actual prices to make mad cash. Nor do I want to go through the process of crafting and stashing an IO for one of my alts to use. I will pay for that service later on. Granted I currently do pay less than you but that need not be the case any longer. (The math is right there.)
The one item I do craft is, as far as I can tell, useful to absolutely no one so I presume that it is being converted to something else by someone else. They can make their 5 million. I will take my 2, if I am lucky, at the cost 50K I'll say. (Perhaps not right now as Yellow Salvage prices are in flux.) The point being that there is lots of influence that could be saved at the crafting stage as well.
I am sorry that you feel ill used by the market. It is my hope I was able to shed a little light upon your misconception of flippers.