You should about market dynamics and pricing power and whatnot. When there is an imbalance between MSRP and what buyers are willing to pay there, provided the latter quantity is sufficiently bigger than the former, then an opportunity arises. Someone along the chain will seek out the potential profit. Tesla has massively raised prices. So what if their public statement is that it is because of inflation? The publicly stated reason matters not. What matters is that they raised their prices in accordance to market forces.

There is a large reseller market for PlayStation 5 because the price Sony sells at is much less than what the market is willing to pay. So scalpers step in seeking the potential profit. There are a number of reasons Sony doesn’t raise MSRP. The main one being goodwill and future buyers. If they raise their prices to $1,0000 the psychological effect will be long term detrimental. So they don’t raise prices. But there is a market for scalpers because of this.

I’ve posted links demonstrating there is a scalper market for some new cars. Indeed, dealerships are often times, in effect, becoming scalpers by raising prices. If all dealerships sold at MSRP this would not benefit consumers in the least. Scalpers would just take over and buying a car from a scalper is a lot worse than buying it, at a premium, from a dealer.

Call it price gouging, scalping, theft or what have you. The words used don’t matter. All that matters is that there is enough potential profit to be had at the imbalance between MSRP and what buyers are willing to pay for cars that someone will be attempting to take that profit. It’s either going to be the manufacturer (Tesla), the dealer, or a third party.