In fact I watched that happen. I'd put a Ripple Rug in my Amazon cart but didn't check out. As I recall it was just under $20 with Prime shipping.
When I came back to the cart a day or two later it was unavailable.
I checked the cart from time to time, and finally it came back at around $26. (It wasn't a full month, but it was a while.)
Went ahead and ordered it. It is a little tricky to form tunnels with it and keep them from collapsing, but if your cat is a natural tunneler he will probably make his own tunnels.
It turns out our tortoiseshell kitty is more of a jumper and climber, so she mostly just uses it as a lumpy rug for a nap when the sun hits it. We have one of those crinkly hoop tunnels too and she barely uses it. But give her a chance to climb on top of anything and she's there!
I thought about returning the rug but figured nah, it wasn't worth the effort and it didn't seem right to stick the seller with a return when there was nothing wrong with it but it was just not quite kitty's thing.
Now I just checked today and it's priced at $44 on Amazon shipped from the seller, or $40 direct from the seller for the new model with the round corners. Yikes, that's quite an increase, but probably still worth it if your cat is a tunneler.
BTW if you like cute cat photos, their website has some fun ones (even if you have no interest in the rug): http://ripplerug.com/
I also like how magically his entire inventory became "reserved" for a month. Competitors (with his own product) figured out how lock down his items preventing him from making further sales, which each sale guarenteed them a profit.
By the way, here's how to lock down someone's sales from Amazon's pages: "Sometimes buyers purchase in-stock items along with advanced-sale items. When this occurs, the in-stock items might not ship until all the items in their order are ready for shipment. This item will be shipped out once the advanced sale item is in stock and ready to ship."
Order all of your "competitor"'s items and put a preordered item in with them set to simultaneously ship. Cancel them as you get orders. You can guarantee yourself their inventory until you can resell it at a higher cost while they eat the fees.