AH - there's a difference here. What is available at retail to the public is different than what is available in wholesale channels. Our distributors have had little to nothing in the way of tubes and tires for over almost 2 years. That said they do occasionally have batches that come in and are sold out in seconds as the people you guys are buying from at retail are buying up everything they can get their hands on.
At this distributor (wholesale) end the pricing doubled overnight. Another double is coming. They also warned that there will be a shortage of raw material. On top of that most of the plants that process these parts are located in Malaysia. That country has been hit super hard by covid at the moment and has their government has shut down most factories.
To make it all worse - there are no containers to get anything over here even if they are able to make tubes and tires at a higher price.
I know it's seemingly hard for most here to think there is anything to a supply chain other than looking at their favorite retail chain online...what I am saying is upstream is getting hit with large price increases and being told of shortages. In addition to what we have been dealing with for the last year and a half. At some point this will hit the retail end.
I get that no one will believe it until it finally hits them on the retail side so... that's why I started this. Just to watch everyone convince themselves it's a non-issue because right now they can buy what they want online at retail. Then when issues start arising it could be a decent place for people to come look for places that still have inventory or intermittent stock.
So...not a hard concept. There are tubes available in retail right now no doubt. Every single one of my distributors is completely out of tubes and has been for the last year and a half.