ok, I'm pretty familiar with wholesale pricing (part of what I do for a living). Armalite or any other manufaturer needs to build a product. Vendors then submit a quoted price for materials for a period of time. Labor, cost of goods, expenses... are figured into the pricing of the product for wholesale distribution (to the wholesalers who then sell it to the gun dealer). Armalite has to have this figured BEFORE they come out with the price to their distributors. I realize that some materials are considered commodities, but that's why you have a quoted price for a determined amount of time. If you "get screwed" as a business buying goods (say a vendor raises thier price without telling you, or "changes the deal on cost", as a business owner, you better find a vendor who will "honor their agreement (guess that's why you have business laywers). I guess what I getting to is that if a dealer qotes me a price, and I give him a deposit, I want that product at the "agreed price". If the dealer comes back to me 2 weeks later and tells me "whoops, Armalite raised thier price, and I have to pass that increase on to you", I'd tell that dealer to tell that manufacturer to "shove it where the sun don't shine" and get my money back. If everybody did this, I'd guarentee that the manufacturer in question wouldn't stay in business very long (unless of course they have a military contract!)