Profit from Panic?

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I just noticed someone on my local Craigslist (California) selling a 10-day dosage of Potassium Iodide (enough for 1 adult) for $250. It seems it's sold out in our city, and pretty much throughout the state.

Out of curiosity, I checked Ebay. The bidding on a similar dose is currently about $25, but there are a lot of "Buy it Now" prices in the $300+ range.

And Amazon? One of its vendors is selling an adult dose for $439.99 now (it was $398.00 earlier this afternoon). www.amazon.com/iOSAT-Potassium-Iodide-Tablets-130/dp/B00006NT3A/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300227639&sr=8-1

Reuters is reporting a "run" on this product, stemming from fears that radiation contamination from Japan will end up drifting across the Pacific on the air currents, contaminating the U.S. (at least if things get worse in Japan). Reuters story: www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/us-japan-quake-iodide-demand-idUSTRE72E8Y920110315?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews

[Gardening Grandma]

Good grief. Y2K all over again.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

Another interesting snippet (reported by the UK's Daily Mail)

U.S. Surgeon General Regina Benjamin said stocking up is not an overreaction and it is right to be prepared as a precaution - in contrast to guidance from state officials. Ms Benjamin made the remarks to NBC Bay Area while touring a California hospital.


Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1366578/Potassium-iodide-sales-soar-U-S-tries-protect-radiation-fears.html#ixzz1Gi4VpMXX

[Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ]

Good grief. Y2K all over again.


Systems development people made a killing during the Y2K time frame, especially consultants.
The general public had not clue what that was all about, and they still do not.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Price gouging, morons screwing up the supply and demand equation... it's such a fine line.

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I would definitely think anyone planning to travel to Japan as part of a humanitarian relief effort should be taking potassium iodide before they go (and I would hope that the U.S. military is ensuring that the soldiers/sailors/airmen/marines involved over there are adequately supplied.)

[cronewitch]

Mar 15, 2011 17:37:42 GMT -5 Savoir Faire-Demogague in NJ said:

Good grief. Y2K all over again.


Systems development people made a killing during the Y2K time frame, especially consultants.
The general public had not clue what that was all about, and they still do not.

I agree people didn't understand how much work it was just that they didn't suffer. I worked 7 days a week for a couple of years to assure the software would be perfect. We had to upgrade every single client some hadn't upgraded in 17 years, some with custom programming. One had his own programmers and a VMS system with partitions. It took 5 days to do an upgrade, night and day logging on and running programs to upgrade files. I was the only one in the world that could have done it. People tried before but always had to restore from back up. His programmers named the files the same things we named them. We had 435 files in many versions so I had to come up with which to over write with which so we didn't wipe his out and have it all work.

Then when we succeed they claim Y2K was a false alarm.

[Sum Dum Gai]

Y2K was a false alarm precisely because it was fixable and everyone knew it was coming. There wasn't a reason for the average American to panic, stock up on food and guns, get a bug out bag ready, or any of that other survivalist crap that you do because modern life is going to suddenly and irrevocably end at midnight on some random day. Was there a legitimate problem that needed to be fixed? Sure. Was there a threat to modern life that could destroy civilization? No. No there wasn't.

[Gardening Grandma]

Mar 15, 2011 18:11:27 GMT -5 Sum Dum Gai said:

Y2K was a false alarm precisely because it was fixable and everyone knew it was coming. There wasn't a reason for the average American to panic, stock up on food and guns, get a bug out bag ready, or any of that other survivalist crap that you do because modern life is going to suddenly and irrevocably end at midnight on some random day. Was there a legitimate problem that needed to be fixed? Sure. Was there a threat to modern life that could destroy civilization? No. No there wasn't.

Exactly.
My late MIL watched way too much news. She fretted that her outlets weren't "Y2K ready". She spent money on a barbecue, convinced that her stove wouldn't work. She was convinced that planes wouls fall out of the sky.
And plenty of businesses stoked that irrational fear.
,

[formerexpat]

Is it bad that I bought a 3x bull S&P ETF this morning when the market opened?

Less than a month ago, before the ME and Japan, this ETF was 20% higher. I'm willing to hold it to get that 20% back and pay for that new LED TV I'm getting for the newly finished basement.

[Havoc]

"Good grief" indeed.... definitely people taking advantage of the situation in a big way.

I am sure that it is sold out at regular outlets, but when we buy KI tablets, we spend $11 for a 2 week supply (adult).

[schildi]

Isn't that stuff in salt? Lets all buy salt at Walmart now!
But wait! My blood pressure!

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I don't think the amount of added iodine to salt equals the recommended dosage for 10 days to protect one's thyroid from radiation.

But I am willing to add REAL butter and salt to my popcorn, just in case!

[schildi]

Mar 15, 2011 23:17:07 GMT -5 ❤ mollymouser ❤ said:

I don't think the amount of added iodine to salt equals the recommended dosage for 10 days to protect one's thyroid from radiation.

But I am willing to add REAL butter and salt to my popcorn, just in case!

I was kidding. I already bought 150 doses on ebay for $300 each, I am fine. I was one of the lucky ones who got in early.

[cytoglycerine]

And this news marks the first occasion where I can say I'm happy to have had my pesky thyroid removed - no iodine needed for me, so it's like I'm saving $400...Cheers to no thyroid!!

[Havoc]

LOL. Keep in mind that they are talking about potassium *iodide*, not iodine which is routinely added to salt.... so buying a couple cartons of Morton's salt down at Wallyworld won't help much. But no worries if you've already bought the salt... it keeps a long time, so when the markets recover, you can bake some pretzels and grab a seat in Expat's basement to watch the new TV....

[schildi]

Darn, another investment mistake!

[❤ mollymouser ❤]

I did see a story online today that said that drinking red wine could help keep people safe from radiation, too.

(Just wanted to share this important public service announcement)

[kgb18]

I did see a story online today that said that drinking red wine could help keep people safe from radiation, too.

Woo hoo! I won't need pills if our local nuclear plant goes down. Seriously though, we do live/work near a nuclear power plant and we have a supply of pills in the building. My boss did check out our supply the other day.