[llimllib]

I used to write software to do this; this comment from the previous time this article was posted is spot on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2478096

The company I worked for did this, if not before anybody else did, than at least very nearly so:

> Then came the "phantom listers" - agencies with software that spiders through the listings of legitimate on line book dealers looking for titles with few (or no) copies listed in Amazon. They then list them at inflated prices.

[CamperBob2]

With any luck, your former employer patented the general concept and then sold the IP to Nathan Myhrvold, who will now sue everybody in the business for eleventy billion dollars.