The profiteers have struck Squeezebox Touch $750

Edorr- You are correct, but I still think it's unethical. Knghifi- I sincerely hope that your 88 y.o. father never needs needs a medication that costs about $200/day to stay alive, which is not covered by either your private insurance (if you are lucky enough to have it) or big bad medicare. Unless that day occurs, you will never know the evils of an unrestrained "free market". BTW, I've never heard anyone who rails against a government mandate for health care complain about his or her parents being "forced" to buy medicare.

Interestingly, the foes of gov't intervention in the marketplace never seem to have a problem with the benefits that they themselves utilize (think interstate highway system, huge tax incentives for oil and natural gas production, etc). Maybe we should go back to the days when instead of big brother forcing you to pay taxes, you could buy a membership in the local private fire department. If not, they would protect your neighbor's house from embers, while watching yours burn to the ground. Ah, those were the good old days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And as far as FEMA goes, also interesting how the Representative who killed a chunk of the aid to the Northeast to repair damage from Sandy was from Louisiana, which got every penny they asked for to rebuild from Katrina. Sandy state (CT, NY, and NJ) residents paid $1.9 TRILLION dollars more in federal taxes from 1999 - 2009 than they received from " big gov't"; while the Gulf States received $645 BILLIOM more from "big gov't" than they paid in taxes. Maybe Lincoln was wrong, we should have let them secede! OK rant over, sorry to confuse you w the facts.

BTW,the figures on federal spending vs. taxes by state are from The Economist, a highly respected British (no American political bias) weekly, and can be accessed here.

Wow. Good thing we're still on topic here.

While The Economist may be a UK publication, it does (IMO) lean left.

Regarding an 88 yo getting meds costing $200/day, you are correct, not a chance that Obamacare (or Medicare for that matter) will not cover that!

We don't have a red or blue problem in the country, it is the color grey of an aging population and that's where the problem lies. Most, if not all, politicians know this but none will tackle it as the unfunded liability of Medicare make the 16 Trillion we have already racked up look like peanuts. Both parties are to blame for this and the longer we wait to address it, the worse the medicine will be when we are forced to take it.

Just my 2 cents..........now back to what is a real / correct / fair market price for a Touch!

I don't know anything about what the Squeezebox Touch does, what competitors it has and what the going price for the Touch or any competitor was before this new price.

That said, if the current price is ridiculously high, someone else will make a similar product and undercut these sellers on price. If the price is not ridiculously high, be happy that you bought your bargain when you did - you made out like a bandit.

As an aside, Vicdamone said:

I live near refineries and in the home town of Chevron yet I pay more for gasoline than people pay thousands of miles away.

Gasoline prices are influenced by a number of factors other than transportation costs from refinery to gas station, such as different costs of crude (depending on where it comes from), state gasoline taxes and costs of refining to different environmental standards. If Vic lives near the Chevron refinery in El Segundo, California, the gas he buys would be subject to all three factors.