Bringing surgical masks to Japan to earn some cash?
 

I was reading a thread about someone who was going to Japan and was asking about Swine flu and someone said that the masks there were all sold out and if you brought some in from another country you could sell them and make a lot of money. I'm going to Japan on June 11th and was wondering if this is a good idea. But will they still be sold out then? Will there still be a large demand? Where would you go to sell them (I'm staying in Tokyo)?

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I can't say whether or not there would be a demand, but I think your second question is the important one. Even if you had 1000 masks to sell, where are you going to sell them and who are you going to sell them to? You are not a licensed distributor so stores won't buy from you. You could set up a table on the street somewhere, but I don't know if people want to buy sterile medical equipment from a 15-year-old foreigner when the disease itself came a foreign country.

Buy a handful and bring them as omiyage and enjoy your stay in Japan.

I find it very hard to imagine masks selling out in Japan... Maybe in some specific corner, in some specific stores - but masks are not a specialty item in Japan. A local drugstore has a whole aisle dedicated to varieties of masks. Everyone uses masks normally, during the winter for protection from colds/flu and during allergy season to block pollen.

In other words, while masks MAY have a short term boom, trust me when I say that they will restock in no time. Anything other than a store not having enough in immediate stock is pretty unthinkable. If anyone thinks that the countless mask producers in Japan aren`t going to jump and start churning them out like there is no tomorrow, they`ll have a very rude wake up call when they find themselves stuck with pile of masks that are an unknown brand. Even in the tiny tiny chance that there really is a serious shortage - who is going to buy a mask they have no clue about the quality/properties of?

I'm in swine flu central, and you cant find any masks. But listen to the ossans. I forget that half the peeps here are like, how do you say, ........
something I used to be............it's on the tip of my tounge........(smart?)............no I was never that..............emmmmmmmmmmm..........young, that's it.

Who said they were sold out? Countless people have been wearing masks in Japan for years as a way of dealing with allergies, so they are already sold at all convenience/drug/grocery stores. I've made a point to look, and as far as I can tell, all stores are still fully stocked, no one has run out of any yet.

Besides that, wearing a mask gives little or no extra protection to things like the flu or cold. If you don't want to get sick, wash your hands regularly, and never rub your hands or fingers against your eyes without washing your hands first.

The method of transmission is simple, someone who is sick just opened the door to the classroom in front of you. You push the same door handle they did, and you pick up the germs. You take your seat in class, yawn, and rub your eyes with your fingers, and boom, you might have just infected yourself.

Instead of wearing a mask, you should be using ant-bacterial wipes or lotion to disinfect your hands. The nonsense you see on television where government officials hand out free masks to the people is the typical "do-something-even-if-it's-useless-so-the-ignorant-will-think-that-the-government-is-doing-something" reaction.

And what do you want to bet that they`ll be back in stock and plentiful within the week? Or at least meeting demand without difficulty?

There are enough masks out there going around that stores in this area are able to get more than a normal amount to stock. There was a whole tower display of box packs today when I went shopping - maybe selling more than usual, but nowhere close to "sell out" levels. I`d go so far as to say that a lot of places are overstocking and are going to end up with masks in the sale bins in a few months.

I really really hope I`m not included in the "ossans"...

masks at my local "drugstore" were not sold out when i was there 30 min ago. i did hear though from friends in osaka that they were a little more difficult to find. if you ask me though, i think this is only temporary due to the drastic increase in demand in that region. drugstores, or supermarkets too for that matter, will most likely be stocked up in a few days.

totally agreeing with sangetsu. those masks will not save you from any airborne swine flu virus. for that you will need a mask with a real filter. as many here in japan have seen on the telly, authority personnel that do checks inside the aircrafts wear real masks.

What MMM said...

PM me your postage details and I will quite gladly send you a few.

I'm good with masks thanks. Didn't know the missus had a box. I'll keep you all informed if they're back in the stores soon. Let's hope this doesn't get any worse. They're cancelling all school trips etc.