One key question is are you willing to pay a premium for items?
For me, in general, no. I've been late to the game on reloading/handloading, but thankfully have good friends helping out with the essentials. That and I've been shopping around and finding other components for non-inflated prices. Many thanks to those vendors. In a couple of cases, I probably spent maybe 10-20% above pricing I had seen elsewhere, but the local shop had it in stock, so I went for it. But I'm not paying much more than that.
There are online vendors that will allow you to place an order and "get in line", which I have done with a few places. I can wait.
That's NOT a criticism on folks who are either willing to pay a premium or maybe even "forced" to pay a premium due to timing, or whatevers. Just mentioning my thought process. In the end, you gotta do what you gotta do. Yeah, things kind of suck for firearms enthusiasts right now, but I think some of the panic is self induced.