The pandemic has shown a lot of peoples’ true colors. We all probably came across at least a few people who turned out to be toilet paper or hand sanitizer hoarders or at least read/heard about it on social media or the news.

When COVID-19 started spreading, many felt the need to rush to their local grocery store and empty shelves of toilet paper. Now, I don’t know what exactly was going on in their heads, but I do know for sure my first thought was not, “Oh crap, (no pun intended) coronavirus is here! Let me go buy tons of toilet paper just in case.”

Hand sanitizer hoarders were just as bad, however, I can sympathize with the idea of wanting to stock up on hand sanitizer and other disinfectant household items more than I can toilet paper.

What I don’t agree with is people who practice what those two brothers from Texas did and bought 17,700 bottles of hand sanitizer. That is just plain selfish and inconsiderate of many of the elderly who risk their lives on their trips to the grocery store only to be met with empty shelves.

After grocery stores and department stores caught up to these horrific people, signs saying: “Limit two per customer” were seen more frequently around stores.

Unfortunately, some lack the common decency of thinking about others, especially during a pandemic. That’s when we need to support and help each other the most.

With the gyms being closed, a lot of people rushed to fitness equipment stores and emptied everything imaginable. When I visited the Modell’s by my house, it was depressing how empty the equipment side was. I couldn’t even find jump ropes.

Apart from the hoarders, there are also opportunists. These, you will often find on the Facebook marketplace.

I’d like to make it clear that I’m not a gym rat or bodybuilder, but I do like to stay in shape, especially after binge-eating like a maniac during the quarantine.

So, there I was on the Facebook marketplace, looking for a standard Olympic barbell and barbell weight plates. I came across just what I was looking for. The guy, for anonymity purposes, will be named Mark, was selling a barbel with 10-pound plates included, for just $45. I thought I hit the jackpot.

I told Mark I would pick them up right away, and that I was an hour away from him. He then changed the price of the listing to $60. I was confused, so I immediately messaged him asking what number was correct. Then he responded: “It’s $60. I mistakenly posted it for $45 and hadn’t corrected it.”

I found it intriguing how he could make such a mistake, but it was still a decent price for a used barbell. After telling him I would be ready to pick it up for that price, Mark then told me it was already pending for pickup by someone else.

At this point, I was getting fed up. He then messaged me a few days later trying to sell another set of barbells. When I asked if it would be the same price, he told me: “I can’t do that low. I put it up for $80.”

Within the same conversation, he changed the price of the barbells three times. By the time I’d have purchased the equipment, I would’ve paid for the price of three new ones.

My aunt also had a similar issue. She is a professional cleaner and went on the Facebook marketplace to look for a fogger steam cleaner machine. It was sold out from Home Depot and every other online store. When she went to look for it on the marketplace, the prices were absurd. One person had a photo with dozens of boxes, selling it for double the price.

I understand that in some circumstances people are struggling to make ends meet during this crisis, so it would be understandable to some extent why certain people would choose to do this, however, if you can afford 12 boxes of steam cleaners priced at approximately $99 at Home Depot, and selling it online for $250, are you really struggling to make ends meet or just trying to profit off desperate people?