Quoted from vid1900:

There was a battle in the federal courts with Amar Bose about the Bose speaker price fixing a few years ago.
It was finally decided that a company could set a "Minimum Advertised Price" (MAP) legally, to protect it's dealer's profit margins. BUT a company could not set the actual "in person" sale price; or that would be considered price fixing.
So if a dealer wants so sell a product below MAP pricing, he can do so without fear of repercussion by the manufacturer, he just can't advertise that price.
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Now as far as "price gouging", you are not being fair to the distributors.
The distributors take much of the risk for new games.
If the game is a a turd, they can have them stuck in their warehouse for literally YEARS. Think of all the Avatars, TRS, and Transformers still sitting around gathering dust. That is money tied up, interest being lost, taxes being paid, storage room used up, heat, A/C, insurance....even if they sold them at cost, they would have lost money.
So if a few "hit" games sell for more than the MAP price, it probably equals out in the long run.
Think of it this way: If you local Ford dealer found they still had a brand new 1967 Mustang in inventory, they would not put it up for sale for $3100 would they? No, because it is worth much more. You would not call them greedy if they sold it for $50,000 would you?
Same with pinball, if you still have a TRON LE in stock, you are not going to sell it for $5200 if it is currently worth $9000.