Price increase on some brass and copper crowns

well, the world is a small place.  The terrible Chilean earthquake that took place a few weeks ago is creating major waves in the precious metals market...specifically the copper market.  and since brass is an alloy of copper, both copper and brass have been dramatically affected.  My prices just increased by a full 50% for these materials.  this is not an increase that I can just absorb.  So out of necessity, I need to raise prices a bit to help the increased cost in materials.  one way to look at the price increase is that suddenly brass and copper are way more valuable/great investment.  as we have all seen with the recent spikes in gold and silver, too--price INCREASES are always quick and sharp, while precious metal price DECREASES are always very slow and steady.