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The Almighty Buck Businesses The Internet

Amazon Sellers Are Marking Products As 'Collectible' To Get Around Price Gouging Rules (theverge.com) 60

Amazon has suspended thousands of third-party sellers for price gouging during the COVID-19 pandemic, but sellers have found a loophole to avoid detection when raising prices: labeling their products as "collectibles," even if there's no conceivable way they could be. The Verge reports: Take this Bowflex dumbbell set, which my colleague Casey Newton encountered while browsing Amazon. Before it sold out in mid-March, Amazon had been selling the weights for $279. This week, the only available weights were from 20 sellers who were offering the dumbbells for between $899 and $1,275 (with free shipping). All had listed the item as "collectible." The automated systems that detect price gouging appear not to monitor products if their condition is listed as "collectible" rather than "new."
[...]
The collectible loophole has existed for some time, sellers say, but before the pandemic, it was rarely used, because sellers only ran into price ceilings when an item was unusually popular and in short supply [...]. But with COVID-19, entire product categories -- cleaning supplies, webcams, home gym equipment -- saw unprecedented demand. Supply-chain disruptions meant some items were already running low, and safety concerns in Amazon's warehouses meant they took longer to restock and ship out. Amazon, and then sellers with normally priced goods, quickly sold out. The remaining sellers raised their prices, sometimes deliberately and sometimes using automated repricing software, and started running into price ceilings. As Amazon's marketplace came under strain, mechanisms that typically work in the background were brought to the fore.

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Amazon Sellers Are Marking Products As 'Collectible' To Get Around Price Gouging Rules

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  • It always happens
    • It always happens

      It happens even more when the rules are stupid.

      Why is Amazon controlling the price of dumbells?

      • by lgw ( 121541 )

        Why is Amazon controlling the price of dumbells?

        The question answers itself. It's dumbells all the way down.

        Are these out of production by Bowflex? If so, and demand is steep, then they are collectibles. The price is no dumber than the $hundreds I've seen anime DVDs listed for.

      • The answer is amazon thinks a little extra short-term profit isn't worth the long-term cost to their brand image.

        Either that, or they fear running afoul of an anti-gouging ordinance in one of the many, many jurisdictions in which they operate.

    • Imagine society if loophole abuse was met with "Don't get cute with me, you know damn well what the law's intent is."

  • It's the only way to make sure.

  • It is because gullible fools assume they will get the best price on amazon and do not check. You shop on Amazon and you buy locally at a reasonable price, which will often be better than a scummy rip off Amazon price exploiting your gullible assumptions. Shop on Amazon and buy elsewhere.

    • It is because gullible fools assume they will get the best price on amazon

      Amazon rarely has the best price on anything.

      The point of Amazon has always been selection and convenience, not low prices.

  • ...and too many of the sellers are shit.

    • Amen to that! Too many of the purchases I was making turned out to be counterfeit or incorrectly advertised. I have not purchased from Amazon for over a year now and don't miss it at all. My last purchase was for a few 25 pound boxes of cat litter. They were actually emptied of half their contents before being shipped. Cat litter for Pete's sake! That was it, no more.
  • quit buying from amazon, i quit buying there, and my checking account loves me more, amazon has become worse than ebay when it comes to bait & switch and deceptive advertising, notice the product you get delivered never looks quite as nice and the one in the photo and description advertised at amazon, i quit the only shopping scheme, i just go to brick & mortar stores even if i have two drive a few miles its worth it to actually see what you are getting before you buy it
    • I hear you, but for some people it's not really practical.

      I myself don't buy a huge amount of stuff off of Amazon but the things I do buy would cost quite a bit more, if I could even find them locally (which, in many cases, I can't).

      Not to mention the whole pandemic-thing going on right now....the fewer stores I go into, the better.

      A couple of clicks and a day or so later $item appears. That's hard to beat.

      • Pretty much this. Even if most places were open, shopping locally isn't an option for me beyond fresh groceries. I have a severe injury to my right foot that leaves me unable to drive (if I even still owned a car). Public transportation is NOT an option right now, and never was for significant purchases.

        Now, I NEVER buy from Amazon marketplace. Only directly Amazon sold, Prime items.

        IF there are other options out there that make sense, and can deliver in what I consider a reasonable time (not two weeks to a

    • by Xenx ( 2211586 )
      That may work for you, but is not valid for a lot of people. While there are items to be found in B&M electronics stores, by and large the price difference between them and Amazon (or other online retails) is night and day. 30+% markup to by at a store. Plus, there is a lot of rural and suburban areas where the nearest feasible store is a good 30-50mi drive. I live in one of those. I basically have a choice between online shopping and Walmart.
  • by fermion ( 181285 ) on Friday May 29, 2020 @07:31PM (#60123306) Homepage Journal
    There is price gouging of things we need, and then market forces for thing we want like a specific dumbbell set. Dumbell sets are around $50. If you are willing to pay more, like $300, you are no longer buying a dumbell set but a name band, which has an arbitrary price based on factors outside of production and distribution costs. Complaining that you are now paying $1000 dollars instead of $300 for a $50 set of weights is like complaining that your pair of Jordans is now $500 instead of $200 for your Jordans. In any case you are being ripped off for a $10 product made by children in Asia.

    This is may be an accurate representation of collectable. All collectable means is that it is not sold for commodity use, but is a limited product sold to people who are willing to pay the markup to have it, like a pair Jordans. Many people buy these new not to use, but to collect. They may be worn, but only special, with care. Obviously most consumable, like toilet paper, food, and the like are not collectible, though some foods are. Have you seen the prices charged for Reeses Easter Eggs?

    • Home Depot Homer bucket: $3.25. Get 8. Buy a four 80 pound bags of concrete (about $4 a bag). Mix. Add to the buckets in different amounts. You now have a weight set for less than $40 - about 400 pounds total weight, in different amounts. and you have handles, too...
      • by Khyber ( 864651 )

        " and you have handles, too..."

        Those handles can't handle more than about 50 lbs before they (or the bucket section where they install) go to shit. I know, I've blown through at least a hundred during 6-ish years of mountain-killing and collecting.

    • If they wanted to, Amazon could solve the problem by rationing essentials. But they won't because they make more money by allowing people to buy and hoard as much as they want and then sell them back on Amazon at inflated prices.

      And Amazon always comes out looking like the good guy.

      • allowing people to buy and hoard as much as they want and then sell them back on Amazon at inflated prices.

        "Hoarding" is only possible if the price is controlled or if future demand is unanticipated. Otherwise, the price will ALREADY BE HIGH and there will be no profit.

        If the future demand is unanticipated, then the "hoarder" is shifting future demand to the present, causing the price to rise sooner, incentivizing additional production, discouraging waste, and diminishing the future shortage.

        "Hoarding" is a public service. It should be encouraged by allowing people with foresight to profit.

    • Exactly. Price gouging is in the context of things needed, or at least useful, to survive, during an emergency.

      Fluff like exercise weights (or tickets to a concert for that matter), full steam ahead I say.

      And even for needed items, it's heavily debated. Easy is the politician preening how nasty the gouging of gas is, or ice in a hurricane region. Harder to grasp is how it hauls much more of the needed stuff in, and very quickly.

      People from New York load up ice trucks to drive down to Florida right after

    • It also depends how heavy the dumbbells are. If they only go up to like 40 or 50 lbs per dumbbell, sure you can get them for under $100. I got a set around Christmas in the $300 range, but they go up to 105 lbs per dumbbell. 2 5 lbs and 2 2.5 lb plates per dumbbell, and the rest as 10 lb plates. No name brand. Metal weights are expensive.

  • The collectible or auction status should be prominent on sales page, along with link to explanation. As long as customers aware should be fair and not damage Amazon image. There are some products like masks that should not be deemed a collectible for price gouging but exercise weights seems non essential so should be available as long as clear.
  • I bought it in January, a 12 pack, still have 3-4 rolls left. I think it's Charmin, might be Northern Touch, or who knows, it was on sale and I needed TP.

    Suggestions on the best way to sell this stuff?
  • Tobacco producers get around cigarette taxes by calling it pipe tobacco.
    • They may try that, but it never works for long. If you know anything at all about tobacco, the difference is obvious. Among other things, only cigarette tobacco will stay lit on its own.
  • Given the cost of production per unit is higher right now, it's not too surprising. But it's driving prices up on all sorts of products.

    I bought three bags of potting soil today - they were easily 60-70% more expensive than they've been in the past (I doubt that, prior to this year, the price of potting soil has increased more than 5 percent over the past decade).

  • Things that cost $1 and can fit in an envelop have shipping of $40 or more.

    • by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      eBay tried to stop that by setting a maximum postage cost on some items, but it was too low for valuable ones and didn't allow for enough packaging to avoid damage.

      • Should simply be that if the shipping cost exceeds the cost of the item, it is automatically added to the item's cost in the listing.

  • I consider my "price gouging" to be an art installation / performance art and social commentary:

    https://www.lulu.com/en/us/sho... [lulu.com]

    I actually wanted to price it at a "million dollars" but the system would not let me, so I reduced my desired price by a cent.

    For may years now, I have wanted to open a "Million Dollar" store at some point. A store where every item is priced at a million dollars. From a pack of chewing gum, to a pair of socks and anything else in the store. All one price, all a million dollars.

    Aro

  • Seriously, some of these people are selling things before they're even released and jacking the price up by 500% or more. How do they get their hands on them before the general public? Do they even have their hands on them or are they just hoping they can buy some cheap and then resell them for more and if they can't they'll just cancel the order.

    I'm not paying $40 for something that should retail for $8 and I'm not paying $265 for something that should probably be about $20. I guess someone is willing.

  • Only $10 a sheet! The price goes us as the roll continues to shrink! Get 'em NOW before they completely go extinct!

    .... Only at CrAzY Eddies!

"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts." -- Bertrand Russell

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