price gouging, the makers wanting a higher price than the design actually is "worth" and with the ram shortage causing an increase in price to begin with really does not help, some folks mentioned mining as the biggest reason, it has an effect on it, yes, but very very few folks I know have even heard about mining let alone bother doing it.
Myself I cannot justify spending $50+ over the MSRP of any product just because it has a $5 better cooler, XFX since the 7000 series seem to be among the worst offenders in this regard want well above the cost of the product and usually are the worst offenders when it comes to the coil whine, fan quality etc, a premium brand that is a premium product is one thing, but, something that is barely above OEM quality (at best) is so not worth extra.
anyways, yes it is nigh on impossible to find these things lately anywhere close to price they should be considering how long they have now been out $40+ over MSRP (if you are lucky) miners should be buying Titan X pascal very $ but pays itself off rather quickly, leave the gaming cards to gamers ^.^