[martin-adams]

I like this. You would have to use gift cards in store to dispose of the cash, and even at $100 gift cards, you'd be looking at 236,987 cards to purchase before you can buy the book.

I used to have Play.com vouchers through my credit card and wanted to buy a new camera, only the listings were from dodgy sellers and £100 more than Amazon. I did think about listing an item, then buying it myself to convert it to cash.

[yc1010]

Well 23 million is a bit of an overkill and I am sure Amazon would raise flags at some stage!

but if you look on amazon for products in the 500-1000 range such as electronics (where amazon only takes 6-8% commission) there are plenty of examples of 3rd parties SOMEHOW selling new electronics below amazon itself!

These guys are willing to lose 6-8% on lets say a hard drive and another few % to undercut Amazon from whom they would buy in first place

[paulcole]

If someone is paying less than Amazon, they can easily undercut. Additionally, what if they'd been selling the product and then Amazon comes along and wins the buy box. A 3p seller might be willing to take a loss to just sell out remaining product to reinvest in a new item that Amazon isn't selling yet. There are a few other situations I can think of too where someone would undercut Amazon, even if it meant losing money.

There's really no way to understand someone's business model by only looking at their price.