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Tennessee Man Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer With No Where to Sell Them

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blur section of toiletries | Tennessee Man Has 17,700 Bottles of Hand Sanitizer With No Where to Sell Them | Featured

After the first U.S. coronavirus death on February 29,  two brothers went out to pick up some hand sanitizer. They drove all around Chattanooga, Tennessee, and cleaned out the shelves at local stores like the Dollar Tree and Walmart.

Matt and Noah Colvin continued doing this for the next three days, covering more than 1,300 miles and crossing over into Kentucky. They filled a U-Haul truck with supplies like hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes with the intention of listing them on Amazon. They quickly sold the 300 bottles of hand sanitizer they listed, and each bottle went for $8 all the way up to $70.

What was some “crazy money” to the brothers was considered profiteering from a pandemic to others. So the next day, Amazon pulled their listings for hand sanitizer, antibacterial wipes and face masks. Sellers were warned that price gouging would result in a loss of their accounts and Amazon removed hundreds of thousands of listings for these items.

The result?

The brothers are now sitting on 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer with no idea of where to sell them while millions of people are scrounging the stores for these very supplies.

“It's been a huge amount of whiplash,” he said. “From being in a situation where what I've got coming and going could potentially put my family in a really good place financially to ‘What the heck am I going to do with all of this?'”

Last Wednesday, Amazon took it a step further and restricted the sale of ANY coronavirus-related products from certain sellers.

“Price gouging is a clear violation of our policies, unethical, and in some areas, illegal,” Amazon said in a statement. “In addition to terminating these third party accounts, we welcome the opportunity to work directly with states attorneys general to prosecute bad actors.”

Colvin, a former Air Force technical sergeant, has enjoyed a six-figure career since he started selling on Amazon in 2015. He did this through the sale of Nike shoes, pet toys and anything that was trending. So as the headlines kept rolling in about the coronavirus, he saw an opportunity to capitalize. He found a defunct company with leftover ‘pandemic packs' and got the price down to $3.50 so he could buy them all. Each pack came with 50 face masks, 4 bottles of hand sanitizer, and a thermometer.

He sold out of the 2,000 packs quickly, selling them for $40 to $50 each.

To many, these sellers are essentially sitting on a stockpile of medical supplies at a time like this. Now the attorney general's office in California, Washington and New York are all investigating coronavirus related price gouging.

By California law, sellers cannot increase prices by more than 10% after officials have declared an emergency.

What can be considered price gouging to some, Colvin considers business. While he's selling 2 bottles of Purell for $20, which typically retails for $2, he says that doesn't take into account his labor, Amazon's fees and about $10 in shipping since alcohol-based hand sanitizer is considered a hazardous material.

Colvin says that the price gouging laws are “not built for today's day and age. They're built for Billy Bob's gas station doubling the amount he charges for gas during a hurricane. Just because it cost me $2 in the stores doesn't mean it's not going to cost me $16 to get it to your door.”

Colvin is now looking to sell his supplies locally, or donate them where needed.

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30 Comments

30 Comments

  • Edi says:

    Three words, and they’re not I Love you.

  • Alfred Carrazzone says:

    They can return them to the store or stores they purchased them from for a refund and help relieve the shortage

  • David Barsky says:

    I think they should sell them on eBay. For a reasonable amount. If they paid $4 they should be able to sell them for $6.50 plus S&H.

  • FedUp says:

    All these virtue-signaling do-gooders accomplish is to keep products away from people who really need them.

  • James says:

    He got greedy and is now paying the price. Wait till the AG’s get a hold of him.

  • Andrew Eldritch says:

    Serves them right. Hope they lose every penny they paid for the stuff. People who try to capitalize on bad situations are scum of the earth.

    • John says:

      Agreed! It’s
      Called Karma!!!

      • Daniel says:

        All for what? The they’re just out to money, selfish bastards. Also the people are out there buying the items. Next thing everybody will start fighting or purging. It’s really sad. Just stay in your house and wash with soap and water as much as you can.

      • Rev. Dr. Yvonne Ray says:

        Karma doesn’t exist because God DOES exist. Karma denies the existence of God.

    • Tom says:

      I totally agree. What these two brothers are are dog excrement. They deserve to go to jail for doing this. I hope the attorney general reems them a new one. Stick them in jail and let some guy named bubba make them their
      Girlfriend!!

      • Ghost says:

        AGREED…

        • Freddy G says:

          The only thing they forgot to do was to buy some industrial size jars of Vaseline at the same time. Because now they have all this product that they have to sit on and the Vaseline would’ve made it a whole lot easier. Now they can just use it all to sanitize their souls for what they did.

  • Wilt Chamberlain says:

    P.O.S. he made 6 figures for the last how many years selling things on Amazon? It sounds like he’s really been struggling to pay the light bill. If the idea of this infection doesn’t make you cringe people like him and his brother should. Make an example of him. We’re only going to get through this ridiculous crazy time by acting normal. Too many people have T.W.D. in their frame of mind it seems.

  • YooperJohn says:

    “…two brothers went out to pick up some hand sanitizer. They drove all around Chattanooga, Tennessee, and cleaned out the shelves at local stores like the Dollar Tree and Walmart.

    “Matt and Noah Colvin continued doing this for the next three days, covering more than 1,300 miles and crossing over into Kentucky. They filled a U-Haul truck with supplies like hand sanitizer and antibacterial wipes with the intention of listing them on Amazon…

    “The result?

    “The brothers are now sitting on 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer with no idea of where to sell them while millions of people are scrounging the stores for these very supplies….”

    Boo-frickin’-hoo.

    Glad these profiteers/price-gougers got stuck. Personally, I hope they lose their ass. They personally deprived thousands of their fellow townsfolk, their neighbors, their friends & relatives from access to a product in demand during flu season. And they did so solely for personal profit.

    Boo-frickin’-hoo.

    • USMCRECON RANGER says:

      Totally agree, I hope they lose their butts! All they could see was making money off of people who were panicking! Two very worthless people in my book!

  • USMC Retired says:

    “Never let a good crisis go to waste” I hope they get stuck with all of it and it hurts them financially. In my opinion it’s immoral to do something like this trying to profit off the hardship of others.

    • John Bartlett says:

      NAVY Retired….In the Navy we call that “Blood in your Wake”. In Church we call that “Reaping what you Sow”. In this World “We are our Brother’s Keeper.” There will be a reckoning.

  • Joyce g Scott says:

    They can donate them.If not I hope they get stuck with every bottle they have.Mean while medical field is running low…

    • Jill says:

      They need to donate them to the hospital, schools, nursing homes and day cares. I’m sure these places would be very happy to have them.

  • Ken Marx says:

    While I’m a supply and demand person, I can’t help getting a good laugh out of this one. These guys took a chance hoping to cash in on others misfortune. Their gamble didn’t pay off. Under normal circumstances, I could understand their finding a bargain and using it to make money, but these are not normal circumstances. This may well be a matter of life or death. Maybe a dollar markup would be reasonable, but $70 for a $4 bottle of sanitizer? Cmon!

  • norman says:

    the government needs to bust their asses for doing that and then trying to scam people for over higher prices than it cost and force them to sell it for what is selling at the stores they got it all from.Do it like they do these big stores on the gas generators when they try to sell them for double money because of the bad weather.

  • M.E. Labbe (Rodriguez) says:

    People like THESE TWO ASSHOLES are worse than the actual disaster! Shame on them! I went out trying to find hand sanitizers for my family and couldn’t find any. Pricks like this are part of that reason. Hope they reap what they’ve sown…GREED!

  • Earnie Bailey says:

    Random acts of kindness. This is a reminder that in toughest times, relying on all of us means caring about one another to survive. Trying to gain advantage over humanity brings on bad karma.
    Let these 2 learn about bad karma.

  • Kimberly Ness says:

    Matt & Noah,
    You two have committed a crime on humanity!!! What are the two of you thinking????
    Money is the root of all evil 👿….
    It’s fine to run a business, but, to intentionally create a crisis amongst your fellow human beings, is totally unforgettable!
    You both need to sit in jail,and think about what the pair of YOU have done! Shame on you both!
    I hope God will forgive you for your actions…

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