Scalpers are also proving that companies can charge more. People laughed at the price of the AirPods Max, but they're selling very consistently and quickly on ebay for 750+

I think this is especially clear in nvidia GPUs. It would have been unlikely for nvidia to try doubling GPU prices for fear of the backlash and the risk of losing out if that wasn't countered by enough people willing to buy at the higher price.

But then the bitcoin gpu shortage happened and people were paying double for mid tier GTX 10xx cards. The shortage went away and prices went back to normal, but then the 20xx cards launched with a huge price bump, likely helped by the shortage scalpers proving how much people would pay.

Companies have other concerns than the immediate revenues though.

Consumers are very sensitive to price fluctuations, it might makes sense short term to raise the price when demand outstrips supply, but consumers will remember the companies that "gouged" them.

Apple maybe would be able to get away with it, but for big companies having stable price is pretty important.

> but consumers will remember the companies that "gouged" them

I don't think so... EA still sells a lot of games

That's likely solely because of supply-side constraints. Trying ordering AirPods Max on Apple's website right now, and you'll be informed of a 3-4 month ETA.

I don't believe Apple would want to charge $750/ea if they had ample supply.

Scalpers restrict supply by cornering the maket.

Is this actually happening? A bunch of people buying something for cheap and then immediately selling it for what the market can bear isn't cornering the market. For that you need a cartel (or a group of people acting in unison) buying the goods up, then hoarding it to drive up the price.

If the producers could produce more, scalping won't be possible.

Scalpers just appropriate the profit which the producers could make if they could afford it. Often they cannot because they declare a price at launch.