You know, a lot of the buyers who are buying right now are making a perfectly rational choice. As in, "I have some disposable income, I'd really like to own an AR some time in the next 60 years, and there is a small but nonzero chance that if I don't buy one in the configuration I want now, I will never have the opportunity to do so." True, an AWB may be unlikely, and maybe he/she will pay $400 more now than he/she would have 6 months ago. SO WHAT? Having that peace of mind now may be worth an extra $400 to someone buying an AR now, which may be why he's buying it now instead of waiting with fingers crossed for bargains months or years down the road.
Bashing current buyers (many of them first-time EBR owners) as "idiots" or "irrational" is wrongheaded. It's their money, and if they'd rather buy an AR for $1600 instead of putting that money on a flat-screen TV or a trip to the Bahamas, who am I to bash them for it? And I certainly hope NONE of the people doing the buyer-bashing own a boat, a car that cost more than $25K, or take expensive vacations, because if you do then you are saying "It's OK if I splurge here and there, but it's stupid if someone else does."
Please lay off the buyer-bashing and welcome them into the gun-owning fraternity, folks. And it may be that they are making a very good investment.
And as to sellers---I paid $379 for my SAR-1 in 2003. If someone offered to buy it from me today for $400 (or even $800), I'd very politely tell him/her to go pound sand. Sellers who'd rather hold onto their guns than let them go for pre-November prices, but who might be willing to sell them for a premium, aren't morally deficient for making that choice, IMO.
It is entirely reasonable to sell something for what it is worth TO YOU, and if a buyer decides that it's also worth the price TO THEM, then you have a sale. If not, you don't.
