The auction sites have much to do with it. Once someone pays an extreme price for something, the market seems to be adjusted in that direction. It makes prices for the consumer go up and prices for legitimate dealers who buy to resell to the consumer go up. I can't buy much of anything anymore to turn over for these reasons. Everyone is in the firearms business now thanks to the auction sites. I'm slowly watching my supply of rifles be depleted and I doubt if they can be replaced with rifles that are as nice at the same prices as I'm selling them for retail. Here's some more food for thought. With the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, it isn't cost effective to import nice rifles anymore because they bring more money in their countries of origin than they do here.