Rick, I have wondered this myself. I bought a brand new Optimus stove still in the box for far less than retail a while back. I had some problems with it, but nothing related to the sale itself, just the stove design.

There is supposedly a lot of counterfeit TNF gear out there. Chinese knockoffs. I suspect some of what you see is stuff retailers have bought and can't sell, so they sell it off to non-retailers at a discount. My guess is the manufacturers don't like this because it puts downward pressure on prices, so the retailers keep this "gray market" fairly quiet.