May 11, 2011
College Student that Made $ on Bin Laden Death Tee Shirts Decides to Refund His Customers
I talked about it at the time and was amazed at how quickly he was able to capitalize on the opportunity.
Now I see via Ed Driscoll posting on Instapundit that he has had a change of heart, and has refunded all the money to his customers. Ed speculates that his very liberal professors had a come-to-Jesus moment with the young man, perhaps implying that his current and future success may be in jeopardy at NYU if he didn't change his tune. I think Ed's speculation may have merit.
I feel sorry for Mr. Harary if he felt compelled to relinquish his profits in order to remain in good standing at NYU.
Osama Bin Laden's death is worth celebrating, or at the very least, the accomplishments of the operators that took him down certainly are.
One hundred and twenty thousand dollars in hand, or the 'promise' of an NYU business degree in the other?
He chose poorly.
Posted by: ThomasD at May 11, 2011 12:40 PMIf he has any sense, he will have just made a few public apologies and give a few token dollars to some peace groups and then stop talking about his ill-gotten gains. Saying you are giving it all back is not the same as actually giving it all back. But in general, no one can tell the difference.
Posted by: Professor Hale at May 11, 2011 01:45 PMHe just earned an honorary degree in business and marketing. He should bail from college and continue in his business endeavors.
Posted by: David at May 11, 2011 10:07 PMA very insightful story.
Posted by: kvinna at May 13, 2011 11:59 AMCloser scrutiny indicates an element of B.S. could be in play here.
For the last three years, my buddy and I have been running a similar online store called Tabloid T-Shirts. Like the guy in the story, we use websites such as Zazzle and CafePress to actually fill the orders. Those sites render the products and sell them for their "merchants" one item at a time. The cheapest shirts on Zazzle and CafePress are more than $12 each. So, it seems unlikely that Harary could sell his shirts for that price and make money UNLESS he purchased a large stock of inventory at a quantity discount. The start-up costs to do this would be very, very expensive for a college student (prohibitively so).
This could be a brilliant publicity stunt. But, my guess is that instead of the "moral issues" cited, Osamadeadtees.com actually closed up shop because Harary realized too late that his small-sized operation wasn't equipped to fill 10,000 orders and still be profitable.
FWIW, Tabloid T-Shirts sold significantly less items than Harary (by A LOT). But, we have no intention of giving the money back. :)
http://www.tabloidtshirts.com/osama-bin-laden/
Posted by: Matt Maul at May 13, 2011 03:49 PM
