Price Gouging: Potassium Iodide

Originally posted by harrytuttle
What about this jerk on eBay - with a "But it Now!" price of $1299.00/pk!!
eBay - iOSAT - $1299.00/pk

I know eBay is an auction site, but setting the "buy it now" price is so scummy.

edit on 16-3-2011 by harrytuttle because: 00

This shows you don't read just Headline grab. The price is for 40 packs of them so its the good price of 32 a box. But the initial sticker price would get me going to.

Oh come on guys, don't tell me if you had hundreds of people basically handing you their money for some measley pills, you wouldn't take advantage of it. Sure the businesses shouldn't be jacking their prices up so high, but really if people are so stupid as to pay $300, for a pack of tablets rapped in tinfoil, that will "save their life" then let them go at it. I don't think its the companies fault, the demand for the pills is just too high, and really that high demand is driven by msinformation and stupid people. I'm willing to bet that over half of the people going ape @#$! over these pills, don't even know how to properly use them, probably will never need to use them, don't know that they are not fully protected by using them, and are probably all from North America!Where any threat of radiation poisoning is still not even evident. Don't start blaming the companies who supply these pills to you, thank your neighbor down the street for hoarding thousands of packets, preparing himself for what he believes to be some sort of "doomsday". I just think its ashame, like most of you have already mentioned, that we are so nervous, so worried, that some sort event similar will happen in our country, that we actually feel the need to take a large chunk out of the supply, which is already greatly needed for millions of people right now, just to calm our own nerves. tisk tisk

If people in America want to buy this stuff then let them. It's THEIR money! No one has the right to tell someone what they can and cannot buy.

Its all well and good talking about supply and demand, and how companies can charge whatever they want... I mean of course we all know that large companies and ethically correct are not two terms which tend to go hand in hand.. but seriously, how messed up is it to put prices up in this sort of situation?

Although, saying that, if you're from a country outside of Japan then there's no need to purchase these in the first place... so if you're silly enough to be thinking that you need them, then chances are some other company will come along and screw you for any number of reasons sooner or later!

What I actually find more disgraceful about these price mark-ups is what BA (British Airways) are doing.. according to the BBC news website they're now charging 10x what they would normally charge for flights out of Tokyo.

*Also, as a side note... instead of forking out for something which you dont actually have any use for, why not donate the money to an organisation that will help the people who are actually in danger?

Originally posted by Gazrok
reply to post by romanmel

 

Glad you asked.

Here in Florida, we have specific laws about it (due to past Hurricanes).

As a criminal offense, Florida's law[2] is typical. Price gouging may be charged when a supplier of essential goods or services sharply raises the prices asked in anticipation of or during a civil emergency, or when it cancels or dishonors contracts in order to take advantage of an increase in prices related to such an emergency. The model case is a retailer who increases the price of existing stocks of milk and bread when a hurricane is imminent. It is a defense to show that the price increase mostly reflects increased costs, such as running an emergency generator, or hazard pay for workers.

I'd say, by sheer definition, in the OP's case, he was certainly gouged.

edit on 17-3-2011 by Gazrok because: (no reason given)

You may be correct, in that he said he has a confirmation number from the sale. This would constitute a contract in a legal sense. The only problem is the cost of litigation would be long, involved and costly for a ten dollar item.

However, merely offering an item at an inflated rate does not constitute a contractual obligation since there was no offer/acceptance in place. In other words, If I offer a common book of matches for a thousand dollars, I could not be charged with "price gouging" merely because my price is obviously rediculous, because there was no acceptance of a lower price by the seller.

reply to post by scoobyrob



This is why I love this site. It's people like you on here that HELP is such HUGE ways...=0)

Originally posted by PhoenixFire
Why did Amazon cancel your order from Nukepills? That is the only part I really do not get.
A very good reason to stop doing business with Amazon. Exploitation of people fears, price gouging, profiteering!!

Well, it looks like what happened is that the buyer thought he was getting a product for a certain price, and the seller upped the price after the agreed amount the buyer thought he was getting. It's like if you were to go to a car dealer and the sales person agrees to sell you a Lexus for 32,000 dollars, you say ok I'll take it, then the car salesman decides to up the price. You come to the dealer with 32,000 dollars in your bank account and the sales guy says he cant give you the car because its 35,000 and you dont have that much in your bank account. In the case that you actually did have 35,000 and you say ok I'll still take it, then the sales guy played you.

reply to post by Bluebelle


You should be around here during a hurricane and see how people are. Line jumping at the gas station as well as price gouging.

reply to post by ThirdEyeofHorus


Ha.. fortunately for me I live in the UK. The most serious case of this we've ever had is a hike in the prices of sledges when we had a ton of snow a few months back.

i gotta say, living on an island this is sure to happen here if SHTF.
but i'll happily abide with supply and demand.. i'll supply my foot in their arse, they can demand i remove it.

pathetic people. trying to profit of a catastrophe and playing on peoples nerves? i really hope now more than ever that karma exists.
it's sure easy to spot the scum of society at times like these

~~Begin Quote by Gazrok~~

True, but there's a reason Amazon.com recently dropped the seller of the book on how to sexually abuse children....it reflects bad on the site and is bad for business. Likewise, the website will suffer any backlash from other negative acts of it's retailers, including price gougers. So yes, it's perfectly valid to voice dissatisfaction to the agent (Amazon) facilitating the sale.

Thing is though, according to their site, nukepills.com is out of stock of the pull, and isn't foreseeing any stock of it until April at the earliest, so ANY price currently listed would be for something weeks away, which isn't going to help anyone anyhow. I do think it's pretty cool they donated 50,000 pills to the relief efforts though.
~~End Quote~~

Well I think we all can agree that that book should have been pulled, nobody should be able to sell that on an open market. However, the price of items on their sites has zero to do with the website, you cannot be banned from selling on ebay for item costs, if somebody puts a price on an item that is unreasonable, nobody buys it and that person loses money from posting it, but if people buy it, it isn't an unreasonable price now is it?

I agree that nobody should do this, but if were all going to play this monetary game, then why get mad at people who are doing good at it?

In the end, the place that needs it gets it, anywhere else can pay extra until the time comes when that place needs it.

Originally posted by SJE98
reply to post by billxam

 

I went to a nuclear weapons school in my early days in the military and I learned quite bit. Those reactors in Japan are nowhere near putting out the level of radiation escaping that your hearing from the media. If Potassium Iodide tabs are needed the National Guard or Reserve will hand them out to you for free. (Save your Cash) The U.S. Military establishment has lots of them is stock, believe me. The Potassium Iodide are not needed at this time in the USA .My guess is they will not be needed in the near future. If you feel safer, then by all means buy some. Most of that stuff on the market is fake. The ones the OP posted are the real ones. I carried that same brand myself with me when working with nuke weapon systems. I have some myself in EM kit I made, but I’m not taking them, because they are not needed.


When Shtf in this country on a super larger scale no one will be able to get what they need because of greed. The people selling this stuff won't be able to spend that cash anyway. The sellers might be surprised at the seizer of their supply by U.S Military Forces, thats if national supplies run low and the public masses need it . The military can do that, if you didn't know. If the situation get that critical you will get some pills either way. If it make you feel better. I'll make sure you personally get some if get to that point.

Coal burning power plants produce more radiation through the ash than nuclear power plants. If you live near one of these plants then buy some.

Hear Hear ! Most sensible post I've read on this thread yet. As a military brat and active duty servicemember myself I can attest to this mans knowledge of the Potassium Iodide stockpiles the US Military has. Fear not citizens, we are here to protect you!

highest price i see is about $40

I don't really think it is price gouging across the board. It some cases - yes of course - but in others it seems most people that ordered since Sat have had their order canceled.

I received this from the site I had ordered from:

"It turned out that we received many more orders than we could possibly fill, but we were not very worried, as we felt we had more than one reliable source to fall back on for us to order more. It turned out, by this evening, that we were told by our last possible source of Potassium Iodate that the United States Government had ordered all manufacturers to stop selling it, as our Government was going to buy it to send to the Japanese."

I couldn't find any MSM articles confirming, but why would someone claim this if it weren't true?

reply to post by billxam


I lived in Japan for ten years. I was there during the '95 Kobe earthquake. The country as a whole rallied to help, with streams of people heading to the area to assist as they could --- just as happens here in the US when disaster strikes. But, what surprised me was seeing how the Japanese yakuza (mafia) became major players in helping to organize food, necessary items, shelter... to people in the area. In fact, the yakuza rallied faster than the government did. I don't remember hearing much about price gouging or predatory anything.

reply to post by rlybadjuju


If that is 100% true and correct, then it is a criminal action committed by the United States Government.

Once again they commit crimes outside their scope of governing and not a single head will roll.

reply to post by HaveAnotherOne


Yes - I just haven't heard anyone talk about this so hopefully putting this out there will elicit some replies.

Isn't it interesting to read that in Japan, where they actually HAVE a problem, retailers are LOWERING prices to ensure that everyone has everything they neeD?

reply to post by babybunnies


They can sell their product for whatever they feel is appropriate. That is the right of the private businessperson.

Nothing wrong with profiting from the sheer ignorant panic morons on the west coast are going through.

reply to post by CoSMiC_ChAoS


The motto of ATS is Deny Ignorance, not support Ignorance. This thread makes ATS credibility drop.