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"However, I also think that other individuals/groups/entities can also put a gun to the head of the bidders. That, too, would be a corruption of the free market system."

Selling my product at whatever price I wish is NOT putting a gun to your head. You are not entitled to ANYTHING I produce or own. As a buyer I also do not have to buy YOUR product at whatever price YOU wish; I am free to decline. As long as we are free to accept or decline prices no initiation of force is done to us. It was when the government comes in, at the behest of the poor whining loser companies or socialist *consumer groups* to regulate the free exchange of goods and services that violence is done. Bill Gates has no power to put a gun to your head to force you to buy his product. The only entity that can be a monopoly is the government. They can use the threat of force to bully companies to fix prices and regulate production and distribution.

A free market is nothing if it isn't free. If at any point we arrive at a controlled or contrived market, then there's no use pretending that freedom exists in the market (or anywhere else for that matter.)

So, let's imagine that OPEC wins the day all competitors no longer exist.

They can now sell their product at the price of your slavery. They can get it because they're you're only option. In fact, they are so powerful that they can prevent your turning to other options because that, too, is just an "energy market."

Personally, I'd be interested in how we got to the point that the free market no longer existed. I would call whatever got us there "anti-free market."

Selling my product at whatever price I wish is NOT putting a gun to your head. You are not entitled to ANYTHING I produce or own. As a buyer I also do not have to buy YOUR product at whatever price YOU wish; I am free to decline.

Depends on (1) the product, (2) the level of control you exercise over that product, (3) the manner in which you acquired control over the product, and (4) the machinations you employ to extort a given price and/or prevent others from offering the same or alternative products.

If the foregoing were put into the form of questions, we have, as a deliberative civilization, decided that each question has an acceptable answer that will encourage economic growth and prosperity. We have also decided that each question has an unacceptable answer that will discourage economic growth and prosperity.

I tend to view our answers to those questions as historically rather effective.