Cat Scam: Planet Money: NPR



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Fred and Natasha Ruckel's cat, Yoda, is sitting on the Ripple carpet. The Ripple carpet has been the subject of a classic intermediary system involving eBay and Amazon.

Courtesy of Snuggly Cat


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Courtesy of Snuggly Cat

Fred and Natasha Ruckel's cat, Yoda, is sitting on the Ripple carpet. The Ripple carpet has been the subject of a classic intermediary system involving eBay and Amazon.

Courtesy of Snuggly Cat

Note: This episode was first published in 2016.

Fred and Natasha Ruckel invented a cat toy called Ripple Rug. It's like a doormat with holes, and for cats, it's like going to Disneyland. When the Ruckels put it on sale on Amazon, it began to sell well. It was a solid company. Then one day, Fred noticed that the Ripple carpet was also on sale on eBay – for twenty dollars more.

It looked like his product. It looked like he was selling it. But he had never posted it on eBay. It was an arbitration case for feline toys. EBay sellers did not change the original Ripple carpet and Frank did not think to add value. They were just raising the price and pocketing the difference.

This is a classic intermediate scheme. It is also a ploy that could only happen on the Internet. But the Internet was supposed to have get rid of from the intermediary. Instead, intermediaries are stronger than ever. The largest companies on the Internet are intermediaries. Today on the show: Why intermediaries assume the global economy, why can not very few people do it and why it could be a good thing

Check-out l & # 39; Article by Jason Feifer in Entrepreneur magazine, which inspired our episode.

The music: & # 39;Our trip to Africa& # 39; && # 39;Pacifica& # 39; Find us: Twitter / Facebook / Instagram

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