>In common use it means that something costs more than many people are willing to pay for it. More likely it costs far less than people are willing to pay for

>In common use it means that something costs more than many people are willing to pay for it. More likely it costs far less than people are willing to pay for it. When the Colonial Piepline was shut down for ransomware, the shortage occurred because a reasonable populace correctly assessed that the local value of gasoline had just skyrocketed far beyond its steady state price, so the demand became limited only by time and social costs (e.g. you don't want to be the guy whose picture is shown filling trash bags of gasoline) plus ways to store it.