I used to write software to do this; this comment from the previous time this article was posted is spot on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2478096 https:

I used to write software to do this; this comment from the previous time this article was posted is spot on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2478096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2478096 The company I worked for did this, if not before anybody else did, than at least very nearly so: > Then came the "phantom listers" - agencies with software that spiders through the listings of legitimate on line book dealers looking for titles with few (or no) copies listed in Amazon. They then list them at inflated prices.