OP is looking to buy thousands and make a commission (his PM to me). Nothing to do with protecting others, simply looking to cash in on death and panic. That is pure scum in my book, as are you.
Maybe he is not doing it for the "right" reasons but his actions are actually more beneficial than yours as you are just sitting on masks you are not planning to sell because of your "morals". (Unless you use them, in such case - good for you.)
He is essentially placing a bet on whether this becomes serious or not.
If it does become serious, he will sell masks to those who are willing to pay more (maybe because they need it more, who knows?) thus ensuring a more fair distribution. It ensures that masks are available at all times for the serious buyers, otherwise there would be no incentive for the manufacturers to increase production and likely, the cheaper masks would be bought by people who might not use them.
If it turns out to be serious he is rewarded with money and those who bought the more expensive masks are rewarded with ... well, the masks they were able to buy because of him. If this is not serious, the mask supply will be restored and he will have to sell his stock with a loss.
That's free market.
money is just paper. it aint worth more than lifes fam. people in china struggling to stay alive, while the people in the west tryna profit of it. i aint stopping you, but you should def reconsider your choice.
That's naive. If this is serious people in the West might also be struggling soon.
Why do you think the supplier warehouses are empty? The Chinese were the first to make orders because they saw the danger, they also cleared retail shops. Very few people in the West were able to buy masks for themselves and even fewer managed to make wholesale orders.
See image:
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All in all:
I'd rather be able to buy a more expensive mask than not to be able to buy one at all and the speculators are natural actors of a free market.