Embarrassed by the sellers price gouging on eBay

[bin2500]

Not looking for advice or an answer to a question. Just sounding off!

Its interesting that I am  hearing a lot of comments from family members and friends who know I sell on eBay. Comments center around the price some sellers have listed sanitizing items for, asking me if I am doing the same thing. Most comments are benign some are more negative. I guess you find out the true nature of some folk.

I am not naive, been on this earth for 64 years A career in the Armed Forces, one in Law enforcement (Before I get comments about being a war monger or dirty cop, I like to believe I was one of the "good" guys) and 5 years of providing direct support for Adults with Developmental Disabilities has shown me the many facets of human nature. Of course I know there will always be people that take gross advantage of human misfortune.

But every time I see the type of person that tries to sell a bottle of hand sanitizer for $100 it still irks me.

I would venture to say that most of the sellers that use these forums are not in that group of lower life forms and I appreciate that.

So I have vented, thank you for reading and am interested in any other views.

Have a great day and good luck selling!

[bar-29368]

ebay is a private company and can choose to ban certain products if they wish.

[picknparley]

The peoples' choice was made by the Feds and the states that say price gouging is illegal. It's not ebay's choice.  The fact is that SO MANY unscrupulous sellers literally flooded the categories, and ebay couldn't stop them nor shut them down fast enough. 

Speaking of embarrassed: my local news ran what they thought was a 'cute' story tonight. 2 little boys, under the guidance of their mother!, set up a table on the sidewalk hawking toilet paper for $2 a roll.  That just didn't sit right with me after seeing all the price gouging going on. I wrote a nice, but specific, note to the news manager at the station expressing my thoughts about their story obviously set up to increase fear that there will be no toilet paper. I mentioned the fact that what those little boys were doing is illegal in over 30 states. 

The news media is a HUGE contributor to the hoarding and gouging problem. JMHO

[lex-talon]

I don't even look at the listings for hand sanitizer on eBay or the River for that matter. Even before the Corona Virus

panic started, already had two bottles of hand sanitizer and enough toilet paper to last a long time. That being said, 

I would never list those items for triple the price their worth. 

My Mother went shopping at our local Wal-Mart and all the toilet paper and hand sanitizer were all sold out. She was a bit irritated and said, "WTH" is wrong with these people? IMO, the media is making sound worse than it really is.

[chapeau-noir]

Human beings have never needed media to hoard and gouge, believe me. 

[picknparley]

But the media reports a run on TP in Washington and the whole country goes nuts. As long as the news sources keep sensationalizing this people will continue to panic. 

[chapeau-noir]

They're just reporting what's going on.  If they didn't, people would be saying "the media are hiding the facts."  Being a journalist these days can be a thankless job.

[mypostingid15]

Embarrassed by the sellers price gouging on eBay

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Don't worry, soon they will be wiping their behinds with their wipes, or the shelves they are stacking them on.

[andrew547]

I doubt anyone is holding you responsible for what other people do on ebay, and if they are they're wrong to do it...

just like they'd be wrong to hold you accountable for what some cops do.

People like to vent, learn, and sometimes say the first thing that comes to mind when learning what others do for a living. You can probably chalk up the curiosity to one of these things. I don't read too much into it, and if you have friends scolding YOU for the actions of others, I'd say maybe think about finding new friends.

On a related note, I just saw a bottle of Purell hand sanitizer on ebay for $25 (reserve not met) with a buy it now price of $125. Shipping was $9.25 extra.

[andrew547]

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@andrew547 wrote:

On a related note, I just saw a bottle of Purell hand sanitizer on ebay for $25 (reserve not met) with a buy it now price of $125. Shipping was $9.25 extra.

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I went to contact the seller to let her know, in case she'd forgotten, that profiteering in an emergency is a crime in many states, and by the time I got there, the auction was gone.

[lightlily_arts]

Personally I would be canceling any trip abroad.   I usually purchased my fare six or more months in advance and I paid for trip insurance after the way things went in 2001.   Right after 9/11 there were hurricanes in Baja, California that nearly destroyed our vacation. They opened the airport and roads two days before we were to leave.

I canceled my trip to Las Vegas later this month.  However, traveling abroad can  be very expensive and around at least  2k per person if you consider airfare and accommodations.  It costs us  over 3K per person when we traveled to Italy.  If they bought travel insurance prior to notification of the virus it's possible they could recover their money. Things are starting to escalate in Greece so perhaps they can cancel without loss.

[stonevintage]

There is a tipping point; when what is the "proper - right" thing to do is replaced by simple supply/demand valuations.  We are there. For many buyers... they had warnings plenty and should have payed attention. A sellers are worse than here.

There are people out there that will be happy to drop 2k for masks or 500 for gloves etc... the market bares... for those of us who can't afford market - we needed to plan ahead for this unknown.   I got caught though... Nicorette gum!  40% increase in 2 days (and many on A are sold out. But, saw what was coming and am ok. Hope you all are too. I've paid 3x normal value 6 weeks ago for items I needed... but now they are 10x... its all relative...

The market bares the price in a crisis. Always has, always will.   Many, many can and will be able to afford to pay more than we are used to.... These are strange new times:(

[stonevintage]

Can I borrow your crystal ball?  I want to see that this is all **bleep** too

[gwzcomps]

Not gonna say I agree with the price gouging but I am curious why selling an $1 bottle of hand sanitizer for $100 is any different than selling an old $1 coin for $100.  I do find it intriguing when people try to exploit supply and demand for personal gain.  Whether we realize it or not it is a common daily occurrence.  It is especially bad in the medical industry.  Where the line is drawn does make for a good debate.  Hopefully in this situation it doesn't cause too much harm.

[stonevintage]

Quite a few of us shopped a 6 weeks ahead of time - buying things we normally would, but for 2 mos rather than a week or so. MERSA, EBOLA, SARS, there is a history that suggested no **bleep**....

We did not impact the shortages, because we were way ahead of the curve (shopping in mid Jan)… a bit at a time for a couple of weeks. We were done by Feb 1.   Lol, got my exp 2018 frozen veggies out of the freezer and cooked a bunch of fresh stuff for future meals... just in case.....

Many people are crabby... items are not available... but they were.    Many kept thinking this isn't really happening... but it apparently is.....    Where else would you choose to be slow to react?  What line would you be in to choose to go to the back for a while and wait and see, when so many were in line? What did they know that you didn't?

[chapeau-noir]

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@gwzcomps wrote:

Not gonna say I agree with the price gouging but I am curious why selling an $1 bottle of hand sanitizer for $100 is any different than selling an old $1 coin for $100.  I do find it intriguing when people try to exploit supply and demand for personal gain.  Whether we realize it or not it is a common daily occurrence.  It is especially bad in the medical industry.  Where the line is drawn does make for a good debate.  Hopefully in this situation it doesn't cause too much harm.

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I normal times, i.e., not when there's a medical emergency going, I would agree.  But insofar as this particular situation goes, this is not normal times.