Supply & Demand (or what would Milton Freidman say...)
My favorite Uncle Milton would cheer the increase in primer (and other component) prices in the face of this avalanche of demand. How else are you going to clear the market? He would want every seller to raise their prices, and to everyone, including the Feds and Big Sis. At some point, the buying would slow down, or crash, as the majority of buyers would stop seeing the benefit of paying higher prices and either forego and/or delay their purchase, and/or merrily move on to spend their money on another, more reasonably priced hobby, past time or enjoyment. At some point, the market would clear, and equilibrium found. And, that equilibrium, for example, may be found at $35 or $37. The days of $27 might take a while to return, but at least there would be a supply of components available to all who want them. And, depending upon the speed at which capacity would/could be increased and brought to bear, higher prices does entice and bring more supply. However, in this day and age of Obama-regs and restrictions, and the barriers to entry erected by the status-quo with the sole intent of locking everyone else out of reaping their excessive rewards and in sharing in that good thing, capacity may be harder to increase to reap the benefit of higher returns and to give us that ready, steady stream of components. Anyway, I end with a quote from my favorite uncle... "The most important single central fact about a free market is that no exchange takes place unless both parties benefit." So… the guys out there buying the $60 primers are buying them because they feel they are getting a benefit (and the guys out there selling them for that price surely are...). We dumb ones are sitting by our computers and smart phones racing to scoop up whatever primers become available at $27 - $29. If the Grafs, Cabelas, Powder Valleys, Natchezs, etc. would also bump their prices to reflect the current supply/demand situation, how fast do you think this “shortage” would end?