There is a bunch of angles to look at this.
So Covid has slowed down manufacturing and freight world wide Add to that the new method of silicon production for current generation processors and graphics cards is slower and requires more silicon to achieve and this was affected by both Covid and the factory in Japan that burnt down. Add to that the massive increase in demand for these products as more and more people now work from home and we have the worst possible solution for purchasing computer hardware.
There is also a lot of false information out there about "price gouging" and "scalper prices" on hardware... At least in Australia this is not accurate and i feel much of the world is the same. The cost of these cards is much higher then past cards for the reasons mentioned above. Many of the smaller retailers like us do not make money off graphics cards currently .. we can't.. if we did we wouldn't sell any and if we can't sell them we can't sell other components. maybe that gives you a rough idea of just how cheap the large retailers are selling these cards.
I haven't seen a single graphics card in australia advertised at a price anywhere near the recommended retail pricing. So why is this happening ? Well it only takes one company to go cheap and everyone else needs to follow or be left behind.
This is very dangerous for all businesses and especially in the electronics and technologies industries. If the little shops vanish then no one is there to keep the big ones accountable any longer.
Just a thought