Can someone explain what is morally objectionable about selling at above retail? We're not talking about gouging water or gasoline prices after a hurricane.
For me it's the fact that many people buy them just to flip them for a profit. That's highly objectionable to me because it's people exploiting a market and creating a bubble. It's like the people who bought and flipped Tickle Me Elmo dolls. It's just being an *******.
This behavior is also exploitative of the artisan. The artisan is deliberately trying to keep their good affordable and available to a larger group of people, but when people buy and flip for 3-10x what they paid for it, it's taking money out of the artisan's pocket since they could charge those prices but chose not to in order to maintain affordability.
I also take issue because it prices many people out of the market and causes other problems. Many of the counterfeits have come around because people felt disenfranchised or saw the bubble and figured that they could make a buck from it.
In the end, yes, it boils down to people making the choice to pay those prices. I wish people would smarten up and refuse to be gouged. It gets harder when you have people who deliberately inflate the market, who promote obscene prices, and people who bash people when try and maintain reasonable prices.