seasterl, actually I think you are a bit misguided. During the covid crap with the shutdowns etc,, I saw a LOT of dealers begging to find stuff to buy. Why? Because they too could not get product. At gun shows,, I saw guys who normally had a booth, not there. When I asked a few that I knew,, they too said; "I don't have anything to sell."
MAYBE a few of the bigger dealers (JUST AN EXAMPLE,,,) say, "Bud's gun shop" bought a bunch of stuff,, and stockpiled it, but I doubt it. They too are at the mercy of a distributor. And it's HARD to predict the future, so to try & buy up stuff that's normally a slow seller & sit on the inventory (money) hoping for a sudden change in demands is not a business model many could afford.
In the modern world,, having a warehouse full of product to sell is not considered feasible or profitable. If it's sitting on a shelf, built & cost money to build,, it needs to sell to turn over the money invested.
And big box stores,, (Bud's, BASS Pro, Cabelas,) place larger orders well ahead of their projected needs. At SHOT,, many dealers place orders for an entire year, to be sent in allotments at specific times. They are not only expected to have already paid for the previous order,, but are locked into the contract to buy.
The stuff appears on GB & other places at higher prices because of the ones who do get their orders filled AND keep their bills paid, do get product to sell. And when the demand increases,, while the production stops,, prices go way up. Businesses try to stay in business by having to make money on their investments. When a customer wants a specific item, and is willing to pay the asking price,, a dealer may well spend time looking for that item. And smart dealers take a deposit before they can get an item. They also will tell the customer that the final price may be more then projected because of the supply's being very low.
The smaller gun shops or dealers who post stuff on GB are hoping to get more out of something because they had to pay more for the item. Simple supply & demand.
I do not sell on GB nor do I sell much of anything except on places like this Forum. But I do own a gun range, & have been associated with the gun industry for decades. I get the SHOT newsletter. I study the market. I pay attention to what the entire industry is experiencing.
Basically, the industry has evolved a lot over the last 20-30 years.
When Bill Ruger was alive,, they did have a warehouse to stock up on models as they built them. They would build say, 20,000 of a model, and warehouse them. Then switch the machines to building a different model. And anytime a different & new model was introduced, they would work to fill orders,, but would NOT build a larger number of that new offering UNTIL they saw the demand for it. We would see Ruger introduce a new gun, see it in the magazines, or on TV or whatever. Yet,, smaller gun shops or dealers wouldn't get their first one for 2-3 years.
Then lean manufacturing came into the marketplace.
After Bill passed & for a time Ruger operated the same way. But when Mike Fifer came into the company, there was an overhaul of everything. Set up a line to run a popular model AND get them into the distributor's warehouses,, not Ruger's warehouse. Stockpiling a model is not as profitable as building & selling them quickly. Build as many as projected for a shorter period of time, switch the production line to a different model, and do the same thing.
Covid, combined with the world wide shortage of materials, different demands, labor forces out of work, and no stockpile of a product,, has caused inflation to hit everything. Our guns are no different. Throw in the stupid government programs paying people to not work, & trying to make them dependent on them caused a labor force issue.
Everything has increased in cost. And when an item is in demand, it's cost will go up.
Let's face it. Due to the national push to "increase the minimum wage to $15" has created a labor force shortage. Many of the people who'd work for a lower wage at a fast food joint,, suddenly say; "I'm not working for less than $15 an hour." The FF joint has to increase it's prices to pay for any warm body that MIGHT do a little work for them. Then you have a skilled person, say working in an office at $12 an hour, who see's Joe dumb butt baggy britches making MORE than them for doing a less skilled job, they demand higher wages. So across the board,, everybody demands more in wages. As such, the expenses to stay in business goes up. And they pass along the expenses in the form of increased product prices.
It's not just guns, it's everything.
