$2.4 Million in stolen skis/gear from Aspen SkiCo, sold on Ebay

[gravitylover]

Damn that's a lot of skis to steal. Geez...

[Dee Hubbs]

8,760 pair of skis stolen.
Estimated value was $6,000,000.
6,000,000 / 8,760 = $685 average per pair of skis.

$2,400,000 in eBay profit.
2,400,000 / 8,760 = $275 average sale price of eBay ski.

Those are some impressive numbers.

[Conundrum]

That's a lot of skis to not notice missing. Who had oversight and who still has a job?

[alpinevibes]

That's a lot of skis to not notice missing. Who had oversight and who still has a job?

He (Derek) had the oversight as head of retail for SkiCo and apparently enough credibility with the C-Levels above him to continually justify missed budgets and squishy numbers year after year. He was able to manage and cover his tracks from start to finish, and also have the time to run his whole enterprise on the side.

I think the logistics of physically taking 8,760 skis and accompanying packaging over that time period is what's also staggering. Very surprising that that went unnoticed/unsuspected by people below him?

[Vt-Freeheel]

8,760 pair of skis stolen.
Estimated value was $6,000,000.
6,000,000 / 8,760 = $685 average per pair of skis.

$2,400,000 in eBay profit.
2,400,000 / 8,760 = $275 average sale price of eBay ski.

Those are some impressive numbers.

Right around proper Maggot pricing.

[Benny Profane]

He should get as much jail time as those bankers we put in jail for creating billions of dollars in fraudulent mortgages and selling trillions of dollars of derivatives based on them. Oh, wait.....

[iceman]

8760 pairs of skis? That guy's garage must look like SFB's shop.

[RootSkier]

He must have been ordering pallets full of ski boxes and tape.

[RootSkier]

8760 pairs of skis? That guy's garage must look like SFB's shop.

Nice. Probably with less weed though.

[AdironRider]

I honestly cannot believe those numbers. Like it is a lot of skis but just the logistics of selling and shipping all of them would take 10,000 hours. Thats 5 years of full time work.

Like there needs to be some fluffing going on here, like when they caught your weed dealer back in the day and he was supposedly carrying enough weight that is was worth the GDP of a small island nation.

[iceman]

It would be in SkiCo's interest if the number of pairs of lost skis reported to their insurer got inflated.

[Vt-Freeheel]

He must have been ordering pallets full of ski boxes and tape.

He was also ordering, then stealing boxes and tape from Aspen.

[Skistack]

His UPS driver must have fucking hated him.


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[iceman]

He was also ordering, then stealing boxes and tape from Aspen.

Well it only makes sense at that point.

[Dee Hubbs]

I honestly cannot believe those numbers. Like it is a lot of skis but just the logistics of selling and shipping all of them would take 10,000 hours. Thats 5 years of full time work.

His eBay account had 6900 feedback ratings from sales.....

[Danno]

I honestly cannot believe those numbers. Like it is a lot of skis but just the logistics of selling and shipping all of them would take 10,000 hours. Thats 5 years of full time work.

Like there needs to be some fluffing going on here, like when they caught your weed dealer back in the day and he was supposedly carrying enough weight that is was worth the GDP of a small island nation.

You think it takes over an hour to sell and ship a ski? No economies of scale?

[dunfree]

You think it takes over an hour to sell and ship a ski? No economies of scale?

Procure ski
Catalog ski
take picture of ski
list ski on ebay
collect money
ship ski
deal wit CS as required, including blocking investigators eBay purchasers (after the comma is a hunch)

an hour isn’t a bad estimate. Even if it’s half that all in, or a quarter, it’s still a lot of work.


also points out the only way to make money on eBay is to value your product at $0

[Dee Hubbs]

You think it takes over an hour to sell and ship a ski? No economies of scale?

8800 skis over 10 years
880 skis a year
You only really sell 7 months a year, so 146 skis in a month or 34 skis a week or 5 skis a day.
-End of day look at the your eBay sales. 5-10 minutes (on company time)
-5 skis sold daily
-click, print shipping labels, schedule the pick up. - 10 minutes (on company time)
-3 times a week, on the way home from work, stop by the storage unit. Pull 15 pair of skis, box them up (supplies are there) tape the shipping label to the box - 45-60 minutes
-Leave the ski boxes for pick up in the storage unit office, or take them home and leave them on the porch for pick up. 15 minutes.
15 pair of skis, $4,125 profit in an hour of work. So 3 hrs a week is netting him $12,375
Add buying more skis (on company time) loading new listings to eBay (on company time) maintaining eBay (on company time).
The only other time consumption is taking a load of new skis (and shipping supplies) to the storage unit a few times a season.

[Benny Profane]

Why only seven months a year? I've bought in August twice.

Did he have employees?

[Dee Hubbs]

Time break down

Procure ski - on company time, and he was telling a SkiCo Retail buyer the models, sizes and qualities to order
Catalog ski - On company time
take picture of ski - On company time, most were new, so stock photos can be used
list ski on ebay - On company time, template is set, just adjust the model, size, price
collect money - eBay account is easy when you set up the payment structure
ship ski -this is the major aspect that would take his personal time
deal wit CS as required - On company time
an hour isn’t a bad estimate. Even if it’s half that all in, or a quarter, it’s still a lot of work.
also points out the only way to make money on eBay is to value your product at $0

[Dee Hubbs]

Why only seven months a year? I've bought in August twice.

Did he have employees?

The argument was for economy of scale:
Making the averages work by assuming most of his sales were Oct - April
Yes his wife would be considered a employee. She plead guilty to her involvement, including moving skis, to/from storage units, packaging and shipping skis.

[Kenny Satch]

Death penalty for stealing skis.
Life for stealing snowboards.

If you steal someones girlfriend in a ski town and then she leaves you....time served.

Carry on

[SB]

I am good with that.

[RootSkier]

He was also ordering, then stealing boxes and tape from Aspen.

Let's give this motherfucker some credit for huge balls, at least.

[AdironRider]

No doubt he did a bunch of this on company time, but it is still a grip of work. I think an hour per sale feels right, if you include the time to actually steal the things.

The theft of the packing materials though is a nice touch. Go big or go home I guess.