That's how they manipulate the market, and one player can do it. When one player can affect prices it's not a competitive market by definition. In a competitive free market no single player has the power to affect prices at all. They could halt production and nothing would happen to prices. Ammunition manufacturers are using the lack of a competitive market against us right now, keeping the price of ammunition high for two years straight because they simply refuse to invest in additional capacity. They claim it's because of millions of new gun owners in the market for ammo and yet nobody asks them, "why the fuck aren't you building more capacity, then? If it's millions of new gun owners causing the shortages and high prices it's not temporary you greedy fucks."