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Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

michaeleisen.org

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Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#31

Post by yc1010 »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #27
yc1010 wrote: post #22

Everyone is missing the point, this is an example of money laundering 1. Get dirty cash from drug sales, prostitution, etc and buy amazon.com giftcards in shops in US 2. Input the codes into various amazon buyer account(s) 3. Buy the book(s) from these account(s) 4. Amazon takes a cut and pays clean money into authors bank account.

The best? Amazon takes a 30% cut and then the government (here in the US) takes another 28% for income tax, 12.4% for SSN, and 2.9% for Medicare. You get less than half your cash into clean money. Plus, there's a huge paper trail of buyers and the million dollar book would likely set off flags on every sale.

See my 2nd comment below, this is definitely happening in electronics section where Amazon fees are smaller.

Losing ~20% is not too bad when clean money from a reputable source arrives in your bank account, if you are reselling lets say hard drives or phones.

Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#32

Post by EStudley »

anc84 wrote: post #19
acqq wrote: post #2

From the comments on the Amazon page: "What a steal! By John Taylor Kesler on April 25, 2011, Format: Paperback I was fortunate enough to buy this at the bargain price of $19,087,354 there must have been a sale because the next day it was listed at $23M. I was very pleased to find upon arrival that the book contained very useful information, however to be honest I was expecting a few more pictures for the price paid.…

I really wish Amazon reviews were useful and not a mixture of a) angry rants, b) bought reviews and c) jokes.

Youtube comments have the same atmosphere. Comments on these sites should have hidden "like/dislike" counters akin to Hacker News.

Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#33

Post by yc1010 »

Angostura wrote: post #28
yc1010 wrote: post #22

Everyone is missing the point, this is an example of money laundering 1. Get dirty cash from drug sales, prostitution, etc and buy amazon.com giftcards in shops in US 2. Input the codes into various amazon buyer account(s) 3. Buy the book(s) from these account(s) 4. Amazon takes a cut and pays clean money into authors bank account.

That doesn't seem like a terribly good way of laundering money. It leaves an extensive trail and I would have thought that transactions like that would set of several klaxons at Amazon HQ

These guys are not terribly bright in some cases

One could also buy amazon.com giftcards with cash in shops in US (no questions asked) then sell them on localbitcoins.com (go check it out > https://localbitcoins.com/buy-bitcoins-online/usd/amazon-gif...) for bitcoins losing about 20-30% in fees to get bitcoin.

Once you have bitcoin....

Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#34

Post by hellofunk »

yc1010 wrote: post #22

Everyone is missing the point, this is an example of money laundering 1. Get dirty cash from drug sales, prostitution, etc and buy amazon.com giftcards in shops in US 2. Input the codes into various amazon buyer account(s) 3. Buy the book(s) from these account(s) 4. Amazon takes a cut and pays clean money into authors bank account.

I'm a bit confused ... the article claims this is a symptom of unexpected algorithmic behavior, but you are saying what actually happened was due to money laundering?

Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#35

Post by SmellyGeekBoy »

EStudley wrote: post #32
anc84 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish Amazon reviews were useful and not a mixture of a) angry rants, b) bought reviews and c) jokes.

Youtube comments have the same atmosphere. Comments on these sites should have hidden "like/dislike" counters akin to Hacker News.

Trouble is, without strict moderation the stuff that floats to the top will be the memes / jokes / lowest common denominator echo chamber opinions, not to mention the people trying to game the system. Look at most of the default subreddits, for example.

Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#36

Post by RaSoJo »

yitchelle wrote: post #11

Though not as expensive, but Amazon has an Apple keyboard for just under $1000. http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B005DQ0DFI?psc=1&redirect=tr...

With the link shared by @yitchelle - I get EUR 61 as well.

But after removing all the additional parameters, I get EUR57 http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B005DQ0DFI

Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#37

Post by [deleted] »

yc1010 wrote: post #22

Everyone is missing the point, this is an example of money laundering 1. Get dirty cash from drug sales, prostitution, etc and buy amazon.com giftcards in shops in US 2. Input the codes into various amazon buyer account(s) 3. Buy the book(s) from these account(s) 4. Amazon takes a cut and pays clean money into authors bank account.

[deleted]

Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#38

Post by tdees40 »

bluedevil2k wrote: post #27
yc1010 wrote: post #22

Everyone is missing the point, this is an example of money laundering 1. Get dirty cash from drug sales, prostitution, etc and buy amazon.com giftcards in shops in US 2. Input the codes into various amazon buyer account(s) 3. Buy the book(s) from these account(s) 4. Amazon takes a cut and pays clean money into authors bank account.

The best? Amazon takes a 30% cut and then the government (here in the US) takes another 28% for income tax, 12.4% for SSN, and 2.9% for Medicare. You get less than half your cash into clean money. Plus, there's a huge paper trail of buyers and the million dollar book would likely set off flags on every sale.

People buy lottery tickets as a way to launder money. This really isn't so bad by comparison.

Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#39

Post by acqq »

SmellyGeekBoy wrote: post #35
EStudley wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Youtube comments have the same atmosphere. Comments on these sites should have hidden "like/dislike" counters akin to Hacker News.

Trouble is, without strict moderation the stuff that floats to the top will be the memes / jokes / lowest common denominator echo chamber opinions, not to mention the people trying to game the system. Look at most of the default subreddits, for example.

Have you looked at the most of the top Amazon comments? They aren't as bad as you'd predict, at least for the books I'm interested in.

Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)

#40

Post by anc84 »

puredemo wrote: post #25
anc84 wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish Amazon reviews were useful and not a mixture of a) angry rants, b) bought reviews and c) jokes.

All of those things are useful in the right context.

Sure, but I would say a review on a market site is not the right context.
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