I guess it depends a bit on the item and cost - I saw a couple of BT cordless phones at around half the price they are normally, which got me wondering if these were seconds or somehow damaged/ returned goods being flogged off.
Went off to search for the phone (BT Studio 3100) and found Ciao listed it at Amazon at 17.99 inc post (might have been a special deal, no longer available at that price - costs 23.xx + 3.xx postage now), John Lewis has it at 19.99 + 3.00 postage.
ChoiceBrand (bit of a pain having to go half way through buying the thing) charges 0.00 for delivery, so wonder how they make anything on this (or when it was sold for 26 quid or more, there was a lot of profit!)
The other phone (Graphite 1500) seems to be available for significantly more than the 'recommended' price shown on ChoiceBrand - they suggest 25.99 but 39.99 is start price on one site, Ciao shows 'from 29.95' and there's some comment about the discount price as BT and Tesco charge as much as 50 quid (!)
Pays to shop around, and don't know how many people would 'pay over the odds' without the net to check prices... Anyway my conclusion is that there must have been some significant discounts because stock may have been produced in high quantities but not all taken up by original destination.
A bit like the low energy lamps sold at Lidl for 10p each (with "British Gas") on the boxes. British Gas sent me a half dozen bulbs last year, before the sending of bulbs was banned by the Govt/ Ofgem (I think it was seen as an attempt at a cheap get-out of true environmental schemes, that would cost a lot more).