When Selling Face Masks Becomes a Federal Crime

by: shut1968

Damn.. cheaper than the gas station by me.. they charge $2.99 per face mask.. Ebay sellers are getting $10 bucks per face mask.. seems like they were a bargain at $1

by: purpleiris

It's one thing to amass the inventory the public needs, but an entirely different thing to take advantage of a crisis for self-serving purposes. Kind of like Amazon.

by: comments

This one is a 50/50 split for me. Price gouging is reprehensible and so is hoarding needed PPE. However, the false claims to justify seizures made by officials about face masks somehow only protecting healthcare workers don't justify taking the small glimmer of hope the public has for trying to acquire masks to protect themselves.

If I am left with the choice of being gouged or potentially getting sick then I choose to be gouged.

In all honesty those 3 ply masks aren't enough to help a heavily exposed healthcare worker anyway, but could have some potential benefit to those walking past someone who happens to sneeze and shoot some droplets my way.

I tell you what though......I really would like to be able to provide some masks for my senior parents but any I already tried to buy on ebay were not received.  

by: Snapped

There is a fine line between marketplace prescience and advantaging crisis. In some cases, microscopic. This one, So ‘novel’, the inevitable legislation remoras are still practicing their attachments.

This case is made visible by scale though. Some irony there. But no more than the scale of real impact by something so small we all face right now.. By that measure, the ‘rules’ for the greater good may overrule.

So then - Had that seller perhaps withheld enough ‘reasonable’ (good luck with that one) to make a living, and ‘donated’ the bulk to the cause - with accompanying fanfare of course - would this allegation then apply?

Or are the speeders not getting ticketed enough mitigation? Depends who ya know, dont’cha know.

Speaking of government seizures, last week a private plane convoy had to stealth in a load of PPE being donated to Atlanta responders and medicos. So the feds wouldn’t grab it to hoa...er...stockpile it.

Now that’s a warning.

by: iheartjacksparrow

@shut1968 - $2.99 per face mask is cheap. In Los Angeles, on seemingly every street corner, are face mask sellers charging $5 each mask. They are probably the same people that used to sell bags of oranges and bouquets of flowers.  

by: Rosebud52

Made my own on the sewing machine.

by: Bill

All the convenient stores around here (Illinois and Wisconsin border) sell masks for $1.99. Was looking for disinfectant wipes on line since Walgreens never gets them in the store but you can buy them on line container of 75 for $9.99 when they used to sell for $2.99.
I use flour sack towels and make a full face bandana or you can get neck gators like the military uses.  

by: Diogenes

Seems to me like a not unreasonable profit compared to what others are charging. There are always some who will gain in any dire situation, Business is business.

by: Jester

I think some of this governmental overreach did more harm than good and shut down in some cases whole sites from selling much needed safety items. I think they need to rethink and make clear the parameters of the law so that the flow of needed products are not impeded from getting to the people that need the products fast. Many sites like Amazon just stopped all sales for a period because the could not police it properly. And since many people hoarded to sell these the mass blocking of the flow to the general public was epic. What they claimed was price gouging in some cases seems not to be IMHO. I would have bought masks for $1 each if I could have gotten them quickly.

by: felyne

My first thought was, what the hell have hospitals been doing to us for all these years? $10 for an aspirin?! And how about the defense dept? I remember $34 for a nut and bolt? How about the Pharma Cartel? $.07 to make a Prozac pill when they sold one for $10 before they went generic. I get it, I know ppl need the masks, but now is the time to review how we've been getting screwed, (with gov't blessings), and do something about it. They always said it's 'capitalism'. How many died b/c they couldn't get Insulin? But that's OK with them. Taxpayers pay for Pharma R&D. Then we pay for the meds. OK, off my soapbox.  

by: railady

Don't forget the toilet seats and latrine covers ........  
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/capitalbusiness/the-air-fo
rces-10000-toilet-cover/2018/07/14/c33d325a-85df-11e8-8f6c-46cb43e3f306_story.html

by: COVID-19

Price gouging wouldn't be possible if the masses weren't such cowards.