Quote:A man with a huge amount of hand sanitizer in Chattanooga, Tennessee, was recently barred from selling it online.

One day after news of the first coronavirus death in the United States was reported, brothers Matt and Noah Colvin began cleaning out their local store shelves of sanitizing products, according to the New York Times.

For the next three days, Noah drove across Tennessee to Kentucky and filled a U-Haul truck with hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes he bought from “little hole-in-the-wall dollar stores in the backwoods,” his brother explained, because “the major metro areas were cleaned out.”

Matt remained in Chattanooga to receive shipments of sanitizer and wipes he ordered online, with the intention of selling them on his Amazon account.

“Mr. Colvin said he had posted 300 bottles of hand sanitizer and immediately sold them all for between $8 and $70 each, multiples higher than what he had bought them for,” the article read.

However, Amazon pulled the items from his account and thousands of other listings the next day and suspended some of the sellers for their actions.

The company also warned them that if they kept running up prices, they would lose their accounts entirely.

Thursday, an Amazon spokesperson told CBS News that there was “no place for price gouging” on its website and that the company was disappointed people were trying to raise prices during the global health crisis.

“Price gouging is a clear violation of our policies, unethical, and in some areas, illegal. In addition to terminating these third party accounts, we welcome the opportunity to work directly with states attorneys general to prosecute bad actors,” the spokesperson commented.

Wednesday, Amazon informed sellers of its decision to restrict who could sell health and sanitation products on its third-party Marketplace platform, according to the Verge.

The note read:

You are receiving this message because you are currently selling, or have previously sold, products such as disposable face masks, hand sanitizers, disinfecting wipes/sprays, isopropyl alcohol or related products. We have implemented more stringent requirements to sell these products in our store and as a result, your offers have been removed. We are not accepting applications to sell these products at this time.

However, Matt does not see his actions as price gouging because while he charged $20 for two bottles of Purell whose retail prices were $1 each, he claimed that people forget his price includes labor, Amazon’s fees, and about $10 for shipping costs.

“I honestly feel like it’s a public service,” he commented, referring to cities where the products are most in demand.

Now, Matt said because of all the backlash he is unsure about what he will do with his 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer.

“From being in a situation where what I’ve got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to ‘What the heck am I going to do with all of this?’” he concluded.

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He needs to get his own website. The feds will get him then- Barr has people looking for this stuff. It is unlawful to price gouge during a National Emergency ( as declared by POTUS) maybe he could sell them on ebay and pay the commissions but have people bid.

Good screw that guy.

Serves him right

Its amazing to me how people dont realize this is illegal. Back when we had hurricane elvis, some dude had bought a few dozen $500 generators and was selling them for a few thousand each. Until he got busted.

That guy is an ass.

(03-14-2020 05:03 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Its amazing to me how people dont realize this is illegal. Back when we had hurricane elvis, some dude had bought a few dozen $500 generators and was selling them for a few thousand each. Until he got busted.

To be fair, like the article states, it's not as quite as large of price "gouging" as people think. Amazon takes around a minimum of $7-8 for selling something using Fulfilled by Amazon (basically buyers can use 2 day Prime shipping to have it shipped to their house directly from an Amazon warehouse). So that $1 bottle of hand sanitizer becomes $10 so the seller can make $1 profit, not accounting for shipping it to Amazon and the gas to buy it, etc. It's still bad during a time of crisis such as now, but not nearly as bad as people are thinking. Also, like he said, a lot of this stuff wouldn't be available regardless. It would be sitting in a boonies dollar store not being bought up instead of people having the option to purchase it online.

The downside of this is if you look on Amazon for hand sanitizer, you pretty much aren't going to see many options. Looks like nearly all hand sanitizer listings are getting pulled every few hours, regardless of having normal prices where the seller doesn't really make much of any money. Though you can see some obvious scams too. Individuals that do this for emergency supplies lack compassion and empathy for others.

(03-14-2020 05:50 PM)ShrackUAB Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 05:03 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Its amazing to me how people dont realize this is illegal. Back when we had hurricane elvis, some dude had bought a few dozen $500 generators and was selling them for a few thousand each. Until he got busted.

To be fair, like the article states, it's not as quite as large of price "gouging" as people think. Amazon takes around a minimum of $7-8 for selling something using Fulfilled by Amazon (basically buyers can use 2 day Prime shipping to have it shipped to their house directly from an Amazon warehouse). So that $1 bottle of hand sanitizer becomes $10 so the seller can make $1 profit, not accounting for shipping it to Amazon and the gas to buy it, etc. It's still bad during a time of crisis such as now, but not nearly as bad as people are thinking. Also, like he said, a lot of this stuff wouldn't be available regardless. It would be sitting in a boonies dollar store not being bought up instead of people having the option to purchase it online.

The downside of this is if you look on Amazon for hand sanitizer, you pretty much aren't going to see many options. Looks like nearly all hand sanitizer listings are getting pulled every few hours, regardless of having normal prices where the seller doesn't really make much of any money. Though you can see some obvious scams too. Individuals that do this for emergency supplies lack compassion and empathy for others.

Thats still a 100% markup, created in part by them cornering the supply. Which is illegal.

Now, what they should have done was to order 90 percent alcohol, aloe gel, and pump bottles, and made their own. They could have charged $5 per bottle and been completely legit.

Apparently this guy is prior service too. Guys like this are known as blue falcons (and it’s not because he was in the Air Force).

(03-14-2020 06:01 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 05:50 PM)ShrackUAB Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 05:03 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Its amazing to me how people dont realize this is illegal. Back when we had hurricane elvis, some dude had bought a few dozen $500 generators and was selling them for a few thousand each. Until he got busted.

To be fair, like the article states, it's not as quite as large of price "gouging" as people think. Amazon takes around a minimum of $7-8 for selling something using Fulfilled by Amazon (basically buyers can use 2 day Prime shipping to have it shipped to their house directly from an Amazon warehouse). So that $1 bottle of hand sanitizer becomes $10 so the seller can make $1 profit, not accounting for shipping it to Amazon and the gas to buy it, etc. It's still bad during a time of crisis such as now, but not nearly as bad as people are thinking. Also, like he said, a lot of this stuff wouldn't be available regardless. It would be sitting in a boonies dollar store not being bought up instead of people having the option to purchase it online.

The downside of this is if you look on Amazon for hand sanitizer, you pretty much aren't going to see many options. Looks like nearly all hand sanitizer listings are getting pulled every few hours, regardless of having normal prices where the seller doesn't really make much of any money. Though you can see some obvious scams too. Individuals that do this for emergency supplies lack compassion and empathy for others.

Thats still a 100% markup, created in part by them cornering the supply. Which is illegal.

Now, what they should have done was to order 90 percent alcohol, aloe gel, and pump bottles, and made their own. They could have charged $5 per bottle and been completely legit.

I'm not disagreeing. Just explaining how it works.

(03-14-2020 05:50 PM)ShrackUAB Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 05:03 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Its amazing to me how people dont realize this is illegal. Back when we had hurricane elvis, some dude had bought a few dozen $500 generators and was selling them for a few thousand each. Until he got busted.

To be fair, like the article states, it's not as quite as large of price "gouging" as people think. Amazon takes around a minimum of $7-8 for selling something using Fulfilled by Amazon (basically buyers can use 2 day Prime shipping to have it shipped to their house directly from an Amazon warehouse). So that $1 bottle of hand sanitizer becomes $10 so the seller can make $1 profit, not accounting for shipping it to Amazon and the gas to buy it, etc. It's still bad during a time of crisis such as now, but not nearly as bad as people are thinking. Also, like he said, a lot of this stuff wouldn't be available regardless. It would be sitting in a boonies dollar store not being bought up instead of people having the option to purchase it online.

The downside of this is if you look on Amazon for hand sanitizer, you pretty much aren't going to see many options. Looks like nearly all hand sanitizer listings are getting pulled every few hours, regardless of having normal prices where the seller doesn't really make much of any money. Though you can see some obvious scams too. Individuals that do this for emergency supplies lack compassion and empathy for others.

I have some knowledge of this and that's not exactly correct. Amazon definitely charges a price per item sold, but it's not going to be that high for a cheaper item. Typically for something like hand sanitizer , it's going to be closer to $1 or $2. There is also a chance professional sellers can distribute the items themselves, but a guy like this isn't going to be big enough to do that. He'd have to ship the items to them and have it FBA (fulfilled by Amazon out of their distribution centers).

Amazon's delivery trucks are going to be delivering items like this that come from their warehouses. The biggest (and sometimes most expensive) items are going to be more likely delivered by UPS or Fed Ex. The post office delivers the items that come from their professional sellers who ship the items themselves (usually a larger, well-known company so it's not something coming out of their distribution centers).

Here's more information on the process if you're interested.

And yes, this guy is an ass and a dumb one at that for publicizing the fact that he has 18K bottles of hand sanitizer on hand with nowhere to sell it to. I don't know where in Tennessee he is located, but he could have sold it on a street corner in a large city and made a bit of money that way. Too late for that now.

https://sellerengine.com/how-much-does-i...on-amazon/

We were trying to find a couple of bottles for my mother. My mom can't walk to the bathroom since she falls if she tried to do it. She have one of those adult potty chairs in her room, and she have no access to soap and water in there. She uses it when she just used the chair. We get her a washrag with water and soap before she eats. People like this hurt people who really need these things.

(03-14-2020 06:29 PM)Fort Bend Owl Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 05:50 PM)ShrackUAB Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 05:03 PM)UofMstateU Wrote:  Its amazing to me how people dont realize this is illegal. Back when we had hurricane elvis, some dude had bought a few dozen $500 generators and was selling them for a few thousand each. Until he got busted.

To be fair, like the article states, it's not as quite as large of price "gouging" as people think. Amazon takes around a minimum of $7-8 for selling something using Fulfilled by Amazon (basically buyers can use 2 day Prime shipping to have it shipped to their house directly from an Amazon warehouse). So that $1 bottle of hand sanitizer becomes $10 so the seller can make $1 profit, not accounting for shipping it to Amazon and the gas to buy it, etc. It's still bad during a time of crisis such as now, but not nearly as bad as people are thinking. Also, like he said, a lot of this stuff wouldn't be available regardless. It would be sitting in a boonies dollar store not being bought up instead of people having the option to purchase it online.

The downside of this is if you look on Amazon for hand sanitizer, you pretty much aren't going to see many options. Looks like nearly all hand sanitizer listings are getting pulled every few hours, regardless of having normal prices where the seller doesn't really make much of any money. Though you can see some obvious scams too. Individuals that do this for emergency supplies lack compassion and empathy for others.

I have some knowledge of this and that's not exactly correct. Amazon definitely charges a price per item sold, but it's not going to be that high for a cheaper item. Typically for something like hand sanitizer , it's going to be closer to $1 or $2. There is also a chance professional sellers can distribute the items themselves, but a guy like this isn't going to be big enough to do that. He'd have to ship the items to them and have it FBA (fulfilled by Amazon out of their distribution centers).

Amazon's delivery trucks are going to be delivering items like this that come from their warehouses. The biggest (and sometimes most expensive) items are going to be more likely delivered by UPS or Fed Ex. The post office delivers the items that come from their professional sellers who ship the items themselves (usually a larger, well-known company so it's not something coming out of their distribution centers).

https://sellerengine.com/how-much-does-i...on-amazon/

The guy is using Fulfilled by Amazon and is also not using Amazon's small and light program for these items. He probably has a couple of employees that help him box and ship items to Amazon, but doesn't deal with shipping out many things himself. The fees were likely a minimum of $4 to $5 per bottle using FBA selling a bottle at a higher than $7-$10 price point. Now, he could've used Amazon's small and light program to reduce fees and sold them for less than $7.00 and probably been fine, which is what he should have done.

Small and light has to have the price be under $7 and the weight to be 10oz or less.

It really just depends on the dimensions, weight, etc of whatever you are selling. Amazon is really all over the place with what they will charge you for fees and it can take some time to get a listing fixed. You also have to calculate the price of tags, polybags, gas, his own time, returns/refunds, employees, and shipping it into Amazon.

A 12oz bottle of really anything (lotion, soap, etc) is going to cost you around $7 in Amazon fees alone at say, a $12 price point using FBA. An 8oz bottle would probably be more like $5 in fees depending on dimensions. Also, Fulfilled by Merchant fees overall are usually higher than FBA when you calculate in shipping cost, especially on small items like this.

A travel size bottle of anything still has a fee of $3-4 at the lowest. Shipping is simply expensive and many of these things are loss leaders on Amazon. A 3-4 oz bottle of anything sold at $3-5 loses money in almost every case just on the fees paid to Amazon alone.

I used to recommend to my internet based clients to use Google's shopping service. That was a great service in the infancy of the Internet, but they were quickly gobbled up by Amazon. The problem (and probably it's one of Google's few failures) is that they focused on web site tools for making a robust online store - but they did nothing really to help with marketing your products.

(03-14-2020 07:07 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  We were trying to find a couple of bottles for my mother. My mom can't walk to the bathroom since she falls if she tried to do it. She have one of those adult potty chairs in her room, and she have no access to soap and water in there. She uses it when she just used the chair. We get her a washrag with water and soap before she eats. People like this hurt people who really need these things.

Did he really though? If he bought them from stores all over rural
Tennessee and Kentucky where they may have never been needed or bought? Instead they are available on Amazon for folks like you to buy for your mother?

I bet if you really dug into this guys costs to acquire the hand sanitizer there wouldn’t be a huge profit here.

(03-14-2020 10:34 PM)pkptigers07 Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 07:07 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  We were trying to find a couple of bottles for my mother. My mom can't walk to the bathroom since she falls if she tried to do it. She have one of those adult potty chairs in her room, and she have no access to soap and water in there. She uses it when she just used the chair. We get her a washrag with water and soap before she eats. People like this hurt people who really need these things.

Did he really though? If he bought them from stores all over rural
Tennessee and Kentucky where they may have never been needed or bought? Instead they are available on Amazon for folks like you to buy for your mother?

I bet if you really dug into this guys costs to acquire the hand sanitizer there wouldn’t be a huge profit here.

Agree with my fellow PKP brother, but sincerely hope your mother can get some sanitizer during these times.

(03-14-2020 10:34 PM)pkptigers07 Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 07:07 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  We were trying to find a couple of bottles for my mother. My mom can't walk to the bathroom since she falls if she tried to do it. She have one of those adult potty chairs in her room, and she have no access to soap and water in there. She uses it when she just used the chair. We get her a washrag with water and soap before she eats. People like this hurt people who really need these things.

Did he really though? If he bought them from stores all over rural
Tennessee and Kentucky where they may have never been needed or bought? Instead they are available on Amazon for folks like you to buy for your mother?

I bet if you really dug into this guys costs to acquire the hand sanitizer there wouldn’t be a huge profit here.

We don't buy stuff online.

I'm having a hard time calling this price gouging.


TBH the prices he was asking weren't all that out of line with what you would have paid back December at the Dollar General for those items in rural areas.

We paid the same for a 4pack DG brand toilet paper that skipped a step or two between being chipped and being put on a roll in the town closest to that I would have Charmin roll back at home. Was the Dollar General gouging?

(03-15-2020 12:37 AM)Kaplony Wrote:  I'm having a hard time calling this price gouging.


TBH the prices he was asking weren't all that out of line with what you would have paid back December at the Dollar General for those items in rural areas.

We paid the same for a 4pack DG brand toilet paper that skipped a step or two between being chipped and being put on a roll in the town closest to that I would have Charmin roll back at home. Was the Dollar General gouging?

I dont either because if Amazon really does charge between $5 and $6 fees the price of this at anytime on Amazon would have to be around $10 to just double your money on $1 each

When I retired 8 years ago my wife and I traveled a lot with WKU sports. I started buying closeout items from stores going out of business or after Christmas/Halloween when prices were 90% off. Before long I had to build a 30x40 ft garage to hold all of the things I bought but didnt really need.

Long story short hire my son and his friend to start a ebay store. Sold over 1 million dollars the first year. By the time expenses, fees, shipping was taken out. I was lucky to double my money on items I bought between .5 and .10 on a dollar of their actual shelve cost in any store. Fees and shipping cost can drive price to 3 or 4x what it cost to go in a store and buy.

One section 8ft by 6ft going all the way up to the ceiling is nothing but boxes super bowl plates, cups and napkins that I paid a total of $30 for...every store in town is out of TP and paper towels. Might be the right time to dump those and get a return. Enough napkins to make up for a 1000 rolls of TP. Thinking about it I bet I still have 500 bottles of hand sanitizer from when I bought the last 50 boxes of items from Ulta Beauty store that closed down last year...

buy a set of super bowl plates and cups you get to pick one item, napkins or sanitizer for free

(03-15-2020 12:37 AM)Kaplony Wrote:  I'm having a hard time calling this price gouging.


TBH the prices he was asking weren't all that out of line with what you would have paid back December at the Dollar General for those items in rural areas.

We paid the same for a 4pack DG brand toilet paper that skipped a step or two between being chipped and being put on a roll in the town closest to that I would have Charmin roll back at home. Was the Dollar General gouging?

disclaimer: I chose your post for my /rant (it's been building for a few days).....forgive me Kap, the cuss tirade below is NOT directed at you....I'm watching some really smart folks take some serious knee-jerk reactive positions in less than A WEEK! It's just dadgum mindnumbing....

------------------------------

Kap, that's correct....it's not in the ballpark of gouging.....

oil corps. profiteering post Kat like none other is textbook gouging.......$/gal doesn't increase ~200% in a few days simply b/c ~20% of U.S. oil was coming out of Nola that was remedied over the next couple of years as gas prices continued to rise to cap at ~4+/gal....THAT'S GOUGING THE CONSUMER TO SUBSIDIZE SELF INTERESTS

and why is that???.................wait for it...............fracking was coming into its own with advancements in tech/discovery AND on U.S. soil......they simply needed the price/bbl to be 1.x > y, where y=preKat$/bbl....the oil corps. didn't give a shite who bore the burden for that tech to succeed b/c they knew the consumer was already in a pickle and would substitute the weekly steak dinner for more bologna....they knew both groups still had to get from point A to B, regardless...

well, what comes around goes around as the saudis/rooskies are fk'n 'em up the arse now...(sound familiar???...#muhcaronaBS #muhFloodingMarket #MYconsumer #1.57/gal)

having said that, let's compare scale vs. the two in scope....this small potato guy's situation is no different than the purest version of supply/demand vs. convenience/attainability.....which group in overall numbers is impacted the most??? (rhetorical)

people should think about it this way..........go to a convenience store and buy a quart of oil.....then go the volume guys like AZ,O'R,AAP, etc. and get back to me how the convenience store is gouging when the volume fellers are out of that particular item....he was simply looking for a venue....

now, to a more passionate and related tangent.....on the cuss tirade I now go.........

something not mentioned in this thread???.....raw materials are as scarce as it gets in that industry.....trust me, li'l bubba's phone won't stop ringing (he's on the sales side in that industry)....he's roughly lost a year's worth of sales in 1 fk'n week b/c his company can't meet demand due to availability of raw materials to produce product....

therefore, is the raw material supplier gouging by raising price due to demand he can't meet??? it's not even close to "yes"....

this is only one simple stupid compare/contrast how people get worked up over nothing that matters until it does....

imagine what would happen if we truly had a pandemic that impacted all age groups with >5% mortality rate...................the answer after this overhypedBS created by the msm in a panic while getting played by the chinks and their depressed Yuan??????

yeah motherfuckers......the answer is, "you're fk'd and a slave to all the goddammed bs w/0 a motherfucking clue how to respond this time, or the next, or the next, or the next...

these stupid motherfuckers have no goddammed motherfucking clue how they've opened up the 'playbook for Pandora's arsehole' on a scale most are ill-equipped to handle....

DJT bowing to the pressure just put him on my bad side like none other.....and yeah, I know he didn't have a 'choice'.....that's why I'm pissed the motherfuck off....

from raw numbers alone the U.S. only has ~60 deaths in the U.S. going into the spring season with >50% coming from geriatrics housed a goddammed shiTTTy arse nursing home in libtard WA....

yeah, let's shut down all the working class that depend on all the intertwined bs we call 'the USD'.....yeah, that makes a shitetonnage of sense......

how about this ************....life is still motherfucking moving since people still have to work, eat, and goddammed motherfucking take a shite!!!!!!!!!!!

gas pumps, any public door/utensil/push button/touch screens, AND anyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy ************ that hands you anyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyFKNthing........let's just goddammed shut every motherfucking thing down and watch Mad MOTHERFUCKING Max take place.....yep, that's a fk'n smart move...should happen by next week when people run out of shite paper...

oh yeah, did I mention when the 1st diagnosed case happens in the fall w/o a fk'n vaccine????? oh motherfucking #muhFoosball and #muhChickeLittles...................

AND..................

how about those that sat out rd. 1 with the hymen still intact in the immune system??? extrapolate to the kids that go to day care/school vs. home schooled/protected and check those figures how healthy one group is vs. the other long term......yeah ya short-sided motherfuckers.....we'll simply call it rd. 2 going into any future version of rd. x.....talk about a perpetual CLUSTERFK!

you're getting played in epic proportions boys................so what if a few more thousand geriatrics die......

it's pretty simple in the interim.......don't fk'n put yourself at risk you spoiled motherfuckers that only want to breathe.....fk that you spoiled biatches that continue to fk everybody else up the arse along the way.....

40 yrs. ago, my crew knew it was coming at some point.....however, we didn't see the spoiled biatches playing this card via social media pressure.....

also, there's too many economic counterpoints to bring up that would smoke any of that bs in the 'sympathy dept.'....swine flu vs. normalcy is the easiest and most current in compare/contrast.....it's amazing we got through that one, Ja?!!!!! /sarc

bottom line that nobody is talking about???? 'they' (da enemas) now have a foolproof playbook................and WE FK'N GAVE IT TO 'EM!!!!!!!!!!!!!

why do we NOT negotiate with terrorists???????????

sig line 1b wins again............read between the lines...

/rant

(03-14-2020 10:34 PM)pkptigers07 Wrote:  

(03-14-2020 07:07 PM)DavidSt Wrote:  We were trying to find a couple of bottles for my mother. My mom can't walk to the bathroom since she falls if she tried to do it. She have one of those adult potty chairs in her room, and she have no access to soap and water in there. She uses it when she just used the chair. We get her a washrag with water and soap before she eats. People like this hurt people who really need these things.

Did he really though? If he bought them from stores all over rural
Tennessee and Kentucky where they may have never been needed or bought? Instead they are available on Amazon for folks like you to buy for your mother?

I bet if you really dug into this guys costs to acquire the hand sanitizer there wouldn’t be a huge profit here.

You don't think people from rural Tennessee and Kentucky need their share of cleaning products?