If you are trying to buy a new card, you have to be whitelisted to get the EDS price from the EDS launch. You get on this whitelist by being an original merchant, or by donating probably a boat load of BTC to EDS to become a special merchant. You can contact EDS and give them an offer, but I doubt they will add you to their special list unless you are loaded.
Otherwise you have to pay a markup by the people that have the right to buy them first. Sometimes the markup is nominal.
That seems like a bunch of bullshit. So those white listed address are guaranteed to make a killing. And as the cost of cards goes up, a smaller subset of players are introduced to crypto due to the high barrier for entry... Sigh... I thought this had mass adoption potential...