5 ms·

Pre-Covid it wasn’t uncommon to see crazy prices on the amazon marketplace. I remember seeing a 10 year old 256mb MP3 player on amazon marketplace for like $600

by jjcon 6y ago

Pre-Covid it wasn’t uncommon to see crazy prices on the amazon marketplace. I remember seeing a 10 year old 256mb MP3 player on amazon marketplace for like $600. You can find most these items for normal prices on amazon too so this seems a bit like making a story where there may not be one.

nordsieck 6y ago
> You can find most these items for normal prices on amazon too so this seems a bit like making a story where there may not be one. My understanding is that there are generally 2 reasons for "outrageous" prices (in normal times). 1. Some vendors specialize in being the seller of last resort. They price their products high and wait out the market until they're the only game in town. This definitely happens with books, although I'd hope that with the advent of ebooks, this will be less viable. 2. Algorithmic pricing gone wrong. Sometimes multiple companies will set their prices on each other's current prices, resulting in gradual price drift.
- ajross 6y ago
  Famously, the million dollar book feedback loop: http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358 http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358
  - onemoresoop 6y ago
    It’s amazing that this guy was able to deconstruct this shenanigan. I’ve seen it too on amazon mktplace and was like what? Then forgot about it.
- Alupis 6y ago
  3. Sellers don't want to deactivate a listing or set their account in "Vacation Mode", so they price it so high nobody sane would buy it. (deactivating listings has an impact on future search visibility and other metrics)
  - gowld 6y ago
    That sounds more like Amazon bullying sellers than sellers exploiting buyers.
  - anewdirection 6y ago
    4. Money Laundering/proxy buying of drugs. This has happened with everything from bottles of tide, to ingame items in online games, it was no suprise it made it to amazon.
- walshemj 6y ago
  Or a way to launder money the example of a collectable usb cable.
hackersword 6y ago
Aren't some of those examples of some form of money laundering though?
- onemoresoop 6y ago
  A bit too traceable for money laundering but it could be in some cases
- dawnerd 6y ago
  More likely re-pricers going crazy.
- jldugger 6y ago
  Typically you are laundering cash; electronic systems do not help here since all the means of depositing the cash into the system are monitored.
  - jayrot 6y ago
    Not necessarily. There are different styles and reasons for money laundering. Selling overpriced items (and colluding with buyers) is a good way to "launder" the provenance of money. Works perfectly fine in online, electronic transactions. The clean money comes from legitimate sales.
    - jldugger 6y ago
      Help me understand how this works. You have a big pile of money from illegal sources. You list fake rare books on Amazon for a million dollars. How are these connected? If you give the dirty money to the "buyer, they need to deposit it in a bank in order to pay Amazon, and will be subject to the normal bank rules. You need someone who can safely pass your money from paper to digital. The only people who can do this are folks with substantial paper money flows. Think cash-only restaurants. They report a modest growth in business, deposit your cash, and "buy" goods and services from you. But you can already fake this as a restaurant supply vendor.
reaperducer 6y ago
A lot of it seems to be seller bots auto-pricing items based on availability. For example, Bounce hasn't made dryer bars for years. But you can find them on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bounce-Dryer-Bar-3-83-Oz/dp/B003VYPKZ2/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=bounce+dryer+bar&qid=1590779538&sr=8-5 https://www.amazon.com/Bounce-Dryer-Bar-3-83-Oz/dp/B003VYPKZ... The store price was around $6. Currently listed on Amazon at $300. But it's not COVID-related. It's had that price for at least a year.
iratewizard 6y ago
There's a bigger story here. There are a lot of loop holes this article doesn't bring up that people were doing. For example, Chinese garbage thermometers - ones that don't work and cost under a dollar to produce - flooded the marketplace when fever was announced as a common first symptom. Sellers took existing, somewhat well rated products like SD cards and used those listing to push their cheap garbage as $85 premium products. If you didn't look too far into it, it might even look legit. Every related category had Chinese companies performing various scams. Frankly, until Amazon has a county filter it is going to continue trending towards being a bigger wish.com clone.

by jjcon 6y ago

nordsieck 6y ago

> You can find most these items for normal prices on amazon too so this seems a bit like making a story where there may not be one. My understanding is that there are generally 2 reasons for "outrageous" prices (in normal times). 1. Some vendors specialize in being the seller of last resort. They price their products high and wait out the market until they're the only game in town. This definitely happens with books, although I'd hope that with the advent of ebooks, this will be less viable. 2. Algorithmic pricing gone wrong. Sometimes multiple companies will set their prices on each other's current prices, resulting in gradual price drift.

ajross 6y ago
Famously, the million dollar book feedback loop: http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358 http://www.michaeleisen.org/blog/?p=358
- onemoresoop 6y ago
  It’s amazing that this guy was able to deconstruct this shenanigan. I’ve seen it too on amazon mktplace and was like what? Then forgot about it.
Alupis 6y ago
3. Sellers don't want to deactivate a listing or set their account in "Vacation Mode", so they price it so high nobody sane would buy it. (deactivating listings has an impact on future search visibility and other metrics)
- gowld 6y ago
  That sounds more like Amazon bullying sellers than sellers exploiting buyers.
- anewdirection 6y ago
  4. Money Laundering/proxy buying of drugs. This has happened with everything from bottles of tide, to ingame items in online games, it was no suprise it made it to amazon.
walshemj 6y ago
Or a way to launder money the example of a collectable usb cable.

hackersword 6y ago

Aren't some of those examples of some form of money laundering though?

onemoresoop 6y ago
A bit too traceable for money laundering but it could be in some cases
dawnerd 6y ago
More likely re-pricers going crazy.
jldugger 6y ago
Typically you are laundering cash; electronic systems do not help here since all the means of depositing the cash into the system are monitored.
- jayrot 6y ago
  Not necessarily. There are different styles and reasons for money laundering. Selling overpriced items (and colluding with buyers) is a good way to "launder" the provenance of money. Works perfectly fine in online, electronic transactions. The clean money comes from legitimate sales.
  - jldugger 6y ago
    Help me understand how this works. You have a big pile of money from illegal sources. You list fake rare books on Amazon for a million dollars. How are these connected? If you give the dirty money to the "buyer, they need to deposit it in a bank in order to pay Amazon, and will be subject to the normal bank rules. You need someone who can safely pass your money from paper to digital. The only people who can do this are folks with substantial paper money flows. Think cash-only restaurants. They report a modest growth in business, deposit your cash, and "buy" goods and services from you. But you can already fake this as a restaurant supply vendor.

reaperducer 6y ago

A lot of it seems to be seller bots auto-pricing items based on availability. For example, Bounce hasn't made dryer bars for years. But you can find them on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Bounce-Dryer-Bar-3-83-Oz/dp/B003VYPKZ2/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=bounce+dryer+bar&qid=1590779538&sr=8-5 https://www.amazon.com/Bounce-Dryer-Bar-3-83-Oz/dp/B003VYPKZ... The store price was around $6. Currently listed on Amazon at $300. But it's not COVID-related. It's had that price for at least a year.

iratewizard 6y ago

There's a bigger story here. There are a lot of loop holes this article doesn't bring up that people were doing. For example, Chinese garbage thermometers - ones that don't work and cost under a dollar to produce - flooded the marketplace when fever was announced as a common first symptom. Sellers took existing, somewhat well rated products like SD cards and used those listing to push their cheap garbage as $85 premium products. If you didn't look too far into it, it might even look legit. Every related category had Chinese companies performing various scams. Frankly, until Amazon has a county filter it is going to continue trending towards being a bigger wish.com clone.