I would hardly call them smart. What kind of margins are theses people making? After you factor in the purchase costs, holding costs, and all the time spent on trying to sell it what is their end gain? A couple bucks per box? Seems like a huge waste of time in terms of the return they are yielding. But most of these people are probably the same types that hang around Walmart every morning, have nothing else to do all day, so an extra $20 bucks here or there makes them feel like they cornered the market...pathetic.
I'd love to find these people and report their gains to the IRS, then we'd see how fast they would be to swoop in and create this fake shortage next time.