Hello from a fellow Ohioan. And yes, there are dogs that go cheap here. Some folks let their purebred dogs go cheap because they want them all to be in their new homes as soon as 8 weeks as possible, and, yes, someone down the street is selling them for several hundred dollars less.
But, you don't get off the hook. It costs the same to raise a dog with papers as it does to raise one without papers. Papers cost next to nothing. $30-$50. It just not expensive. I think it costs $35 + $2/puppy to register a litter. So A litter of ten would be $55. Stretched over 10 puppies, that is $5.50 per dog. Yes, most breeders will sit still for that. You have to start with papered breeding stock. Which you pay more for by a few hundred bucks usually. But don't you want a puppy that comes from parents that are certainly purebred, and you know the dogs that were back there? You know they did not breed father to daughter, mother to son, brother to sister?
You don't really care? Well, then that's what you are getting. If the breeder is not concerned with the parentage of the dog's he's breeding, he has no idea if they are closely related, what's back there, what to expect. Fine.
If those dogs were registerable, but he did not, why? Because it was going to cost 30 bucks for sire and $30 for the dam and another 50 for the puppies? That makes no sense, no, not even in Ohio. So why? The only reasons are the dogs were sold on a limited registration. So the breeder chose the option where they promised not to breed the dog and paid less for it. And then they did it anyway. Someone like that you are going to pay to sell you a dog? That makes you as unethical as they are. People try to protect their puppies so they do not end up being bred every cycle and then shot when they no longer produce for them. So they make the registration limited. People know what that means, and ignore it, and then sell the puppies without papers. They had no right to breed the dog. They cheated from the get-go.
Or, the AKC came and audited their paperwork and dogs and kennels, and found them in violation and suspended or banned them from the AKC. This happens usually only if they found serious neglect, abuse, or cheating on paperwork -- registering dogs incorrectly.
So there you have it. You did not think $300 would buy you so much. And, truthfully, papers are not adding value to the dog itself, they do not make the dog purebred or breedworthy. But without the papers, than you have no idea. Some one can still cheat on paperwork, but chances are much better for getting what you wanted, if your breeder is doing at least the absolute minimum. And the absolute minimum is starting with dogs that are registered with the accredited kennel club, AKC in the US.