Note: it could also be artificial price collusion.
Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
21–30 of 96 posts
Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
#22Everyone 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.
Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
#23Perhaps include in the title that this is from 2011. I haven't seen these kind of things recently, but I'd be happy to be proven wrong.
Not to that extreme price but very frequently long-tail books jump from mid-teens to low-thousands and then back down.
I noticed one today on Amazon UK,"Der Alpha Jet" jumped from £16 to £1964.73 as sold by Amazon itself.
Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
#24From 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.
It's the next level of captcha. People will understand the joke, future bots won't.
Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
#25From 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.
All of those things are useful in the right context.
Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
#26Everyone 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 like this. You would have to use gift cards in store to dispose of the cash, and even at $100 gift cards, you'd be looking at 236,987 cards to purchase before you can buy the book.
I used to have Play.com vouchers through my credit card and wanted to buy a new camera, only the listings were from dodgy sellers and £100 more than Amazon. I did think about listing an item, then buying it myself to convert it to cash.
Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
#27Everyone 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.
Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
#28Everyone 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
Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
#29Everyone 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 like this. You would have to use gift cards in store to dispose of the cash, and even at $100 gift cards, you'd be looking at 236,987 cards to purchase before you can buy the book. I used to have Play.com vouchers through my credit card and wanted to buy a new camera, only the listings were from dodgy sellers and £100 more than Amazon. I did think about listing an item, then buying it myself to convert it to cash.
Well 23 million is a bit of an overkill and I am sure Amazon would raise flags at some stage!
but if you look on amazon for products in the 500-1000 range such as electronics (where amazon only takes 6-8% commission) there are plenty of examples of 3rd parties SOMEHOW selling new electronics below amazon itself!
These guys are willing to lose 6-8% on lets say a hard drive and another few % to undercut Amazon from whom they would buy in first place
Re: Amazon’s $23M book about flies (2011)
#30Though not as expensive, but Amazon has an Apple keyboard for just under $1000. http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B005DQ0DFI?psc=1&redirect=tr...
Maybe someone from Amazon is reading HN - that's showing as €61 for me