I'm betting the same thing is happening with loaded ammo, it leaves the factory by way of distributors but gets routed to others before most of hit hits the store shelves.
There is no doubt in my mind that a lot of this goes on. The store owners funnel the ammo shipments to a second party who then sells it for them at some online auction site for 4 or 5 times the usual price. All the while telling the customers who come by the store that they just can't get anything in because of the shortage. It's a win, win for the store owners. They make 4 times as much profit off the ammo but avoid the accusation of price gouging because they aren't selling it off their actual store shelves for those inflated prices. People tend to remember that time they just needed a box of ammo to take their kid hunting and you charged them 80 bucks for a 16 dollar box of Winchester Power Points. But this way they get to sell it at those prices without any of their usual customers knowing it's actually them doing the selling. I say if you are going to be a price gouging a-hole then don't be a p#ssy about it. Put it out in your store for those prices.
The best thing we could all do right now is just stop buying ammo for a while. One of the best things that could possibly happen would be if over the next 2 months every ammo auction at places like Gunbroker ran their course and closed without receiving a single bid. I'm not saying that would solve everything but it would be a damn good first step. As long as people keep freeking out like there is never going to be any ammo again this will not get better. As long as people keep paying 70 bucks for a 20 round box of federal power shocks then I promise you that is exactly what they are going to keep charging your @$$ for them.
