
Amazon sellers ‘hijack’ listings to sell face masks despite new rules - danso
https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-sellers-hijack-listings-face-masks-coronavirus/
======
threeseed
My favourite is this one: [https://www.amazon.com/Dukal-900610-Reflections-
Earloop-Plea...](https://www.amazon.com/Dukal-900610-Reflections-Earloop-
Pleated/dp/B07SYJBBS4)

$46 for 100 and the "newer" version is $170 for 50. If you look at the reason
for this massive price jump:

"high price caused by 1) price spike of non-woven fabrics, 20K up to 200K/ton,
due to capacity issue caused by coronavirus. 2) till now, US custom will block
or expropriate large quantity of mask, so we have to ship this product through
small airmail package, which 5 time cost of logistic fee vs shipment in
container"

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ecommerceguy
I've got a decent amount of n95 (both 3M and HDX HD Brand) masks that we
lucked into more than a significant amount of time ago. We are afraid to list
them, at any price, because I'm afraid ebay/amazon will kill our listings at
any price. I'm ready to ship them for free, of all costs, I just don't want my
amazon "privileges" revoked. who do i give n95 masks too? edit: they are 2024
exp dates

~~~
TeMPOraL
> _who do i give n95 masks too?_

Donate them to your local hospital. Hospitals everywhere are running short on
masks and other PPE, and _a lot of doctors and nurses are going to die because
of it_. Italy is already hemorrhaging medical staff trying to stop the virus.

~~~
wmeredith
Please do this. I had a few unused leftover N95’s from a furniture refinishing
project. I gave them to my neighbor who is a nurse at a local hospital.
They’re desperately needed. If “regular” civilians get sick that’s bad, but
when nurses and doctors start going down it’s much much worse.

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lulula
Machine learning my foot! I think Amazon has just admitted to the fact that
they can't control bad actors from taking over their listings.

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sneak
> _We use sophisticated tools, including machine learning, to combat them, and
> we are making it increasingly difficult for bad actors to hide._

So sophisticated that some reporter for wired could find them in the top few
hundred bestsellers in a few minutes with a quick visual scan.

Let’s be clear: Amazon should not be censoring legal items on their platform.
However, their efforts at stopping it are purely a PR matter, not a real
effort.

~~~
kdnvk
> a quick visual scan

Yeah a quick visual scan from a human is super easy to automate.

~~~
sneak
Amazon is one of the largest employers in the world. It’s lip service, as
further evidenced by the tons of fakes on their website.

[https://www.racked.com/2018/1/8/16849298/amazon-
counterfeits...](https://www.racked.com/2018/1/8/16849298/amazon-counterfeits-
global-entry-customs)

Anyone who wishes, Amazon staff included, can go and see the $10 “1TB” usb
flash drives that are just 16GB drives with hacked firmware to report a
different size. It takes about 2 minutes to find them. They don’t bother.

The evidence is there if you want it.

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fortran77
This guy got a "hand sanitizer" copper disk (??) listed as an "Amazon's
choice!"

[https://www.amazon.com/Sani-Disc-GK95D-Cleaner-Wherever-
Prob...](https://www.amazon.com/Sani-Disc-GK95D-Cleaner-Wherever-
Problem/dp/B07SN6GW3B/ref=sr_1_15?crid=T4ILT1RNX4QD&dchild=1&keywords=hand+sanitizer&qid=1584659043&sprefix=hand+%2Caps%2C215&sr=8-15)

~~~
TheSpiceIsLife
Many metals are contact-antimicrobial

See
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_properties_of_co...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antimicrobial_properties_of_copper)
-: _Copper and its alloys (brasses, bronzes, cupronickel, copper-nickel-zinc,
and others) are natural antimicrobial materials._

And
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligodynamic_effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligodynamic_effect)
-: _The oligodynamic effect (from Greek oligos "few", and dynamis "force") is
a biocidal effect of metals, especially heavy metals, that occurs even in low
concentrations._

~~~
fortran77
You're welcome to rub your hands with a copper disk after going out in public.
I'm going to wash them with soap and water for 20 seconds.

~~~
SkyPuncher
To be fair, this would be a great fidget toy while out in public.

~~~
DenisM
How about Copper-Spinner? Made from organic anti-viral copper. Heals the soul
and the hands.

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popotamonga
I bought an n99 anti pollution mask last year on amazon $9.99 2 filters.

Checked the same listing now, $40

~~~
radu_floricica
4x price increase? That's ... reasonable? Considering the shortages and that
the original price is quite low, I can't even call it price gouging, that's
just normal adjusting. That's the level of price increase that would convince
companies to up production and people to look into their garage for those few
boxes they bought and never used.

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xwdv
Why don’t people just fire up their own domain drop in an e-commerce store and
sell these face masks while answering to no one? It should be fairly easy for
such a site to go viral given the pent up demand.

~~~
sneak
What is “just fire up” for you and I is an insurmountable hurdle for most
people who use computers, either due to skills or ignorance, and is one of the
main reasons that people use hosted, censorship platforms as default.

~~~
xwdv
So this means people like us would have the competitive advantage for these
sorts of business opportunities.

~~~
anigbrowl
Why aren't you doing it and making a killing (pun intentional)?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
Ethics? Humanity?

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luxuryballs
Good, let people buy face masks. Better than not being able to find any.

~~~
fortran77
That's not what this article is about. It's about people listing face masks as
books or other items.

And then there's the issue of items not being as described, like photos of
20-mask packages, but what arrives are single masks repackaged under
unsanitary conditions:

[https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETU-
_paU0AIjwnK?format=jpg&name=...](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ETU-
_paU0AIjwnK?format=jpg&name=large)

~~~
eru
Indirectly, it is.

These shenanigans are only in place to circumvent the rules the grandparent
commenter complains about.

