"During a gold rush, sell shovels" - What are some other examples of this? (feddit.nl)

submitted 3 months ago by neidu2@feddit.nl to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

62 comments fedilink hide all child comments

A couple of others I can think of:

Crypto-boom of 2016ish: GPUs/mining rigs
LLM/AI hype nowish: User generated data
90's dotcom bubble: Server space

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 43 points 3 months ago

During a pandemic, sell sanitizer and toilet paper?

But most those guys were pretty much seen as assholes, so I don't know if this good advice or not.

[-] neidu2@feddit.nl 22 points 3 months ago

Yeah, over here we have this former rich guy (he lost his fortune thinking he was better at picking stocks than he actually was.) He got lucky and made his fortune as an early investor in a cell phone company in 2000s, and after that he's basically become a serial grifter. His covid enterprise was to buy face masks in bulk, repackage them, and resell.

Well, he got hit with a huge fine: The face masks were only approved as long as they remained in their original packaging. Once he repackaged them, they were no longer considered sterile, and as such no longer approved for medical use => false advertising

[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 11 points 3 months ago

What a collosal moron

[-] bionicjoey@lemmy.ca 13 points 3 months ago

The toilet paper thing was mostly a result of mass hysteria, not an actual issue of supply and demand. There were some supply issues in Australia IIRC, but most countries would absolutely not have had any toilet paper shortages if people hadn't all panic-bought far more than they needed

[-] neidu2@feddit.nl 3 points 3 months ago

I wonder if all of the ones hoarding toilet paper have managed to use up their stash yet.

[-] HelixDab2@lemm.ee 4 points 2 months ago

Nope. Still good for a few years.

But that's because I always buy toilet paper and paper towels at Costco, and buy more when I'm down to two cases.

Two is one, one is none.

[-] grue@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

I don't know about that, but I do know I grabbed basically a lifetime supply of hand sanitizer a year or so ago because the grocery store was so overstocked they were giving them away for free, LOL.

[-] Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Yup! One in my town was passing out free wipes for over a year.

[-] Rhaedas@fedia.io 8 points 3 months ago

No, hand made masks. Especially when it surprises the officials who should have known it was possible and beefed up supplies of the real thing. The first few months of Covid were a wild ride on knowing what would be the best choices of DIY protection, and Etsy and other sites were crazy.

[-] captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 months ago

I 3D printed a few dozen of these visor things for my local hospital that took 3 ring binder dividers as face shields/sneeze guards. Several ended up multi-colored because I used the ends of several spools of filament for that.

[-] cynar@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

I've still got about 100 or so of them. I was mass printing them as part of a coordinated project. We basically managed to saturate the local area with them. Once demand suddenly stopped, I was left with the next batch ready to go. I've still to find a good use for them.

[-] HurlingDurling@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Why assholes? Because the toilet paper?

Assholes are only that if they price gauge during people's time of need.

this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2024

82 points (94.6% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27027 readers

867 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.