In March, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic gripped the world. Over the course of a surreal few days, everything shut down and people were ordered to quarantine at home. Lacking a vaccine, the only real protection against this respiratory virus was masks - except none could be had. Hoarders had stripped the supply of masks clean from every supplier nationwide. Healthcare workers had no personal protective equipment. Sewists throughout the country broke out sewing machines, some they hadn't touched in years, to make masks for themselves and first responders. And the one thing that became more scarce than toilet paper was 1/4" white elastic. This is the story of one woman listing it on an online auction site, and how a global bug in one of their website's functions costs her a half million dollars in revenue.