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Working From Home - Impacts of Coronavirus
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Stray Electron:
  I think that the current laws could be applied to auction just as easily as a retail store. The law (here) states that you can't sell items for over 10(?)% than higher than the normal retail price during a declared emergency. Many sellers are in clear violation of that.  An auction seller could still sell but they'd have to cap the price at 10% over normal.  Buyers might be willing to pay more but the sellers shouldn't be allowed to charge or to even accept more than 10% over.

  In the case of E-bay/pay Pal, I think that they should declare those transactions void and refund the entire purchase price to the buyer, even if they've already gotten the product.
EEVblog:
Costco in California  :o
https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1239676109731647491
EEVblog:

--- Quote from: Nusa on March 16, 2020, 04:28:45 pm ---I don't see how gouging laws can easily be applied to an approved auction format. In this case it isn't the seller driving up the price, it's the buyers. Once an item is placed for auction, what control does the seller have, legally or otherwise? Tell the winner he bid too much and the item will be sold to a lower bidder?
--- End quote ---

Yep. The smart sellers will start everything at 99cent auction.
Nusa:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on March 16, 2020, 10:46:15 pm ---Costco in California  :o
https://twitter.com/lopp/status/1239676109731647491

--- End quote ---

I can give a first-hand report on two different Costos near me in the San Diego, California area.

Toilet paper and bottled water got hit hard over a week ago, but everything else was pretty normal. I have plenty of TP and water already, so that didn't bother me. No long lines, no problem buying food. My impression is it was just the actual preppers and opportunists that were doing mass purchases at that time.

Friday, after Trump finally declared a national emergency, was when everyone else reacted all at once. That was the day all the Costcos had lines around the building. Walmarts too (most of them have very large food sections) for that matter. I saw the lines, but I did not try to enter.

Saturday afternoon, things were back to normal. It was actually less busy than usual and nearly everything was restocked or in the process of being restocked -- there were lots of stock people working their butts off, but clearly Costco's supply chain was up to the task. From the chatter, I picked up that the freezer cases had been almost totally emptied the previous day. Still no TP or water, the pile of eggs was a quarter the usual size, and the quite large pile of SPAM cases were marked "one per person".

I also stopped at a Dollar Tree(everything is $1 each, before tax). They did have TP, if you were willing to pay a buck/roll....so it wasn't completely unobtainable. I was there to get several 2.5 liter bottles of Shasta root beer for a buck each.

Haven't been shopping since. I normally have enough of everything for months, other than perishables which can be done without, so you can call me prepared, but not a true prepper.
james_s:

--- Quote from: EEVblog on March 16, 2020, 10:47:25 pm ---Yep. The smart sellers will start everything at 99cent auction.

--- End quote ---

I like it when they set the starting bid at a price that is low enough to be a good deal but not so low that it's a complete steal because I can usually snag it for the opening bid.

When a popular item starts at 99c it shows up in everyone's searches and pretty soon you have idiots nickle & diming each other to death days before the auction ends. It almost always sells for much more that way.
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