Say your wife bought a 9mm yesterday...A S&W Shield, the Gun Stores website list it as $405, the MSRP on the S&W site says it $449 and she paid $529 for it. Would you call that gouging?

She is there now, they tell her their website is the old price and the $529 price is the new price. She has ask to speak to the owner.

Opinions??

Things are worth what someone is willing to pay.

Yes, however the small print "prices subject to change without notice" usually covers them to do this.

I would be caught talking to the manager. All he can do is say no and then you decide if you want it.

I told her to let them have it back, but she likes it

That's $80 over the MSRP!!

She bought it yesterday and has gone back to ask why they charged more than the internet price, which is still listed...

I would take screen captures of the internet site and save them.

Print them off, showing today's date, and take them in and confront the manager.

Advertising a product and then charging more for it than the currently advertised price is illegal. If they change their prices, then they need to do it online too.

She has both printouts with her, the S&W and their online store.

I got a gas station manager on this once. he had a different price on the pumps than what was on the sign.

I read the original post incorrectly. I did not realize that the actual gun store website had the incorrect price. That's horse poopy. I thought you were just referring to the msrp.

Now is not the time to buy firearms unless you don't have one for protection. The prices will go down by next year. This is just my opinion.

Just got home and checked Gun Broker...I guess I'll quit bitching about the price. I just wished she had got the bug a couple of months ago.

Bamachem, their website also mentioned they were sold out, so I guess that lets them off the hook for the price change.

Does she want to make a profit? Can get you a couple of names of people that want one bad.

Probably not Robert. Like I said after looking on Gun Broker, the price she paid is about middle of the road and it's 'in hand'.

It pisses me off but I can let it go and chalk it up as bad timing.

Here's what most folks fail to realize. The higher price probably helped your wife get the gun in the first place. You were initially angry that you paid more than MSRP but you admit that the price was "middle of the road" after checking gunbroker. Can you guess what would have happened if word had gotten out that this store was selling them at MSRP? That's right. They would have been quickly bought up creating a shortage.

Don't get mad at inflated prices. Free markets are a good thing. In this case, it helped your wife get a gun that may otherwise have been "sold out" if retailers were not allowed to change prices. Gouging laws have the opposite effect. They help guarantee shortages exist because retailers have to charge the same when demand shoots up.

To answer your original question.

Price Gouging = Charging double for Hotel Rooms, Food, Bottled Water during natural disasters.

Free Market = Charging what ever you think you can get for an item that someone wants, not needs.