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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:52 pm 
 

Ralf Toth wrote:Personally, I wouldn't be too proud about talking anyone into selling a collector's item worth $750+ for $125.
<snip>
I know many of you will disagree with me. I'm ready to get flamed for this, but I don't care. If I am not the only one who thinks this way, it would be nice to see some basic discussion about this issue.

First off, nobody should "flame" you, even if they don't agree.  You're entitled to your rather noble opinion, Ralf. ;)

My take on this is simply that the seller agreed to the price by setting a BIN.  Nobody forced them to do that, and if they were concerned about getting fair market value, they could/should have done a couple of quick google searches.  They're probably happy to have $125 USD in the pocket instead of a couple sheets of paper.

A seller is perfectly capable of telling someone to go to hell if they don't agree with any pricing suggestions they might make.  It works both ways, too -- some sellers think an OCE is "worth" $300+.  (If they can actually get that, more power to them.)

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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 2:57 pm 
 

bclarkie wrote:What is the difference if the seller already has one [BIN] on the auction immediately or if he/she puts one on there later on with you asking without any prompting to the amount.


All the difference in the world.  There was no BIN before you took a positive action to induce one.  If you take a positive action to induce another to act in a fashion that works to their detriment, then yes, you are culpable for the outcome of that action.  

I begrudge no one who finds an item at below its market value in a fixed price environment (a used bookstore, for example).  That's what economists call market noise (or sometimes price dispersion, depending on the theory to which you ascribe.)  The market takes care of that on its own.  But I think we can all agree that had the seller been allowed to continue in his original intent, i.e. to allow the item to be sold in auction,  the item would have commanded a vastly greater price.  So the question is not whether or not the seller knew the value of his item (and priced it incorrectly), but whether he was induced into taking an action to his own detriment.

What bothers me about this discussion is that some people here seem to have forgotten that one of the things that an auction does is allow the market to set prices for people who may not know the value of the item they are selling.  That's what auctions have always done; set a market price for an item where the price is untested or unknown.  This is what an e-Bay auction does as well.  When you take a positive action to interfere with that process, especially when you have the sole intention of seeing if you can prevent a market price from being set, then you engaging in a morally questionable act.  I'm sorry, but any claim that the victim of such an act "didn't do his homework" or was "stupid" is not a defence, either.

I've read plenty of outrage on this board about high prices set by resellers, with accusations that such an action was designed to fleece the unwary.  Trying to get a seller to put a BIN on an auction so that you can walk away with a steal is equally distasteful.


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 3:04 pm 
 

Yama-Arashi wrote:
bclarkie wrote:What is the difference if the seller already has one [BIN] on the auction immediately or if he/she puts one on there later on with you asking without any prompting to the amount.


All the difference in the world. There was no BIN before you took a positive action to induce one. If you take a positive action to induce another to act in a fashion that works to their detriment, then yes, you are culpable for the outcome of that action.


So, on the same hand if I was the one involved in this particular auction(which I wasn't), and I asked the seller if he/she had a BIN, and the seller said sure, $5000.00. Somehow that is a negative and to the sellers detriment? :? Just like deimos said as well, that seller could have also told the said parties who asked, "No" or "Kiss my ass" for that matter. Who is to say for the sellers sake that he wasn't planning on putting on a BIN of $50 and he just hadn't gotten to it yet, but due to the multiple emails he/she had received in regards to it he decided, "Shit this item is pretty hot stuff, I am going to jack up the BIN to $125".


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 3:18 pm 
 

Yama-Arashi wrote:
bclarkie wrote:What is the difference if the seller already has one [BIN] on the auction immediately or if he/she puts one on there later on with you asking without any prompting to the amount.


All the difference in the world. There was no BIN before you took a positive action to induce one. If you take a positive action to induce another to act in a fashion that works to their detriment, then yes, you are culpable for the outcome of that action.


Additionally, I dont think that you claim moral high ground in one instance and not the other. Fact is if you are in a store and find this same item for the same amount, fulling knowing its true worth, than you are bound by the same moral grounds to tell the store owner of its true worth, you can't have it both ways.

There of course is another thing to consider. Ever heard of the word "Haggling"? Ever buy a used/new car and tried to talk the salesman down from their asking price? Does trying to pay less make you immoral? Not necessarily unless you lie to do it.


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:20 pm 
 

bclarkie wrote:Additionally, I dont think that you claim moral high ground in one instance and not the other. Fact is if you are in a store and find this same item for the same amount, fulling knowing its true worth, than you are bound by the same moral grounds to tell the store owner of its true worth, you can't have it both ways.


First, "you" in this instance is not you, Bclarkie.  If you need to bring your blood pressure down, re-read my post and replace "you" with "one."  I'm siding with Ralf, not naming names.  In fact, I'm very carefully not reading back on this to find out exactly who is copping to what.  I'm not the e-Bay policeman.

Second.  Read my post with attention, please.  The issue revolves around the concept of the responsibility of taking positive action.  When you take positive action to bring about a result, especially one that harms another, you are in the realm of moral culpability.  If you come upon a fixd-price deal entirely by chance (as the purchaser did, in the instance at hand) no moral culpability attaches.   When someone is offering something for sale, they set a price they are willing to accept.  If they get the price wrong, they lose out, either through lost profit (price too low) or lost sales (price too high).  If buyer disagrees on price, and seller is amenable to discussion, price negotiations can ensue.  This is called "doing business," and yes, I'm quite familiar with the concept, thank you.  

But e-bay isn't a haggling environment.  It's an auction.  Please re-read my post on what an auction is and what it is designed to do.  This wasn't a flea market or a used-car lot.  When you attempt to defeat the purpose of the auction, especially when you are doing so in order to benefit yourself to the detriment of another, yes, I'm willing to state that it's morally questionable.  What is shilling, for example?  An attempt to defeat the effort of the auction to set a fair market value for an item by artificially inflating the price.  Under your argument shilling is not a problem because after all, the victim can drop out of the bidding at any time.  I don't think we want to stand by that interpretation of fairness.

Finally, the discussion was never that you have an obligation to pay a high price for an item, or even a "fair" price.  I'm an economist, I don't believe in such a thing as a "fair" price to begin with -- the market clears itself.  The discussion at hand is whether you can walk away with a clean conscience if you have attempted to manipulate an auction to the detriment of another for your own benefit.   I'm with Ralf on that; I think it's a question worth thinking about.


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:35 pm 
 

Yama-Arashi wrote:
bclarkie wrote:Additionally, I dont think that you claim moral high ground in one instance and not the other. Fact is if you are in a store and find this same item for the same amount, fulling knowing its true worth, than you are bound by the same moral grounds to tell the store owner of its true worth, you can't have it both ways.


Second. Read my post with attention, please. The issue revolves around the concept of the responsibility of taking positive action. When you take positive action to bring about a result, especially one that harms another, you are in the realm of moral culpability. If you come upon a fixd-price deal entirely by chance (as the purchaser did, in the instance at hand) no moral culpability attaches. When someone is offering something for sale, they set a price they are willing to accept. If they get the price wrong, they lose out, either through lost profit (price too low) or lost sales (price too high). If buyer disagrees on price, and seller is amenable to discussion, price negotiations can ensue. This is called "doing business," and yes, I'm quite familiar with the concept, thank you.


Using your term "positive action", how is simply asking if the seller has a buy it now price considered to be anything other than what it is. You are going on the assumption the seller is going to respond to their own detriment. When asked the "Do you have a Buy It Now" question the seller has many options: 1) Could be simply "No", 2) Could be "Yes" with a value lower than what market value is, 3) Could be "Yes" with a value that is very close to or at market value, & 4) Could be "Yes" with a figure that is far above market value. By not introducing a figure into the discussion you are not positvely affecting anything. Your hope when asking the question is that the seller will put a figure that is favorable to you, but in no way is your question affecting his decision.  As I tried to point out in my first reponse, someone asking this question could just as easily cause the seller to respond in a fashion that is more favorable to himself as it is to the questioner.  We can not assume that the seller will always respond in a fashion that is detrimental to himself. What if in this circumstance the seller responded with a figure of $900.00 which would be a pretty fair value or what if he offered a value of $10,000.00?


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:37 pm 
 

i have been on the receiving end of instances like this, where ppl have made me offers for something, which was way below its value. this relates to not only RPG stuff, but other things too. one of my instances was 2 boxes of very old comics that i had. i needed space and decided to just offload them - i stuck an advert in the local paper and someone came to buy em for £25. it wasnt until a few weeks later when i was mentioning it to someone, who nearly collapsed when i told them what was actually in the box. the value of what was there, was close to £1500-2000, but in the end, that was my laziness for not looking into things first before selling them.

if youre going to create a debate about this particular instance, you HAVE to debate it relating to life generally too, as it happens all the time, in relation to everything you could probably imagine.

it is normal human nature, for an individual to try and acquire something for less than its value or what its worth.

if you are selling an item, the decision is always down to you what you want to do with it.

the seller could have said no i dont want to sell it for $125, but in the end, its still a lot of money and if he was happy with that, then well thats his/her choice.

if i was in the position of a buyer, i would have no problem at all asking someone if they wanted to BIN an item, whether its an auction of not. they can say no its an auction and i will let it run after all. its their choice.
if i was asking, i would leave it to them to choose how much they wanted to BIN for. this way, i have not taken advantage of their ignorance or whatever - they have chosen for themselves.

sorry but this is getting silly. you go into any store selling computers anywhere in the world. you walk in and a salesman will offer to assist. if you dont know what youre talking about and say "i want a computer", you cant honestly tell me, he wont try and sell you one of their premium items? cmon now, is that not the same thing? i think it is dont you?

what i dont agree with, is trying to fill someones head with lies to get your BIN at a low price. thats just not british.

Al


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:46 pm 
 

<bunch of wonderful commentary snipped>
killjoy32 wrote:what i dont agree with, is trying to fill someones head with lies to get your BIN at a low price. thats just not british.

Is that a statement of national pride or an obscure usage of "british" that I'm not familiar with?  :)

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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 4:50 pm 
 

deimos3428 wrote:<bunch of wonderful commentary snipped>
killjoy32 wrote:what i dont agree with, is trying to fill someones head with lies to get your BIN at a low price. thats just not british.

Is that a statement of national pride or an obscure usage of "british" that I'm not familiar with? :)


hehehe its an englishman thing deim :)

prb some outdated thing from millions of years ago that i am the only one that takes any notice of :)

Al


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:33 pm 
 

1995 called and wants it's Pharoah valuation back.

:lol:

OK, so no one actually said that but it is what I hearing in my head while trying to figure out waht is going on here.

No offense to Brette. He is has a great collection with a deep knowledge of all kinds of collectible items. I respect this greatly. I would prefer to give him the benefit of the doubt and hear from him what really happened. Maybe he wrote the seller asking how much he wanted to end the auction early and let the seller pick his price.


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 5:40 pm 
 

I think the 'positive action' is inspiring the seller to engage in a BIN, when they wouldn't have normally, had not a 'unscrupulous' buyer encouraged them to do so. The buyer is unscrupulous if they knew full well the market value of the item, and played off the seller's ignorance in order to massively undervalue the cost of said item. If the seller never intended to institute a BIN, then I think the onous falls on the buyer for essentially ripping off the seller, and by extension, other buyers as well, since they won't be able to bid thanks to the BIN. Conversely, if the seller overpriced the item, who would buy it? Unless the buyer was naive, then no-one, so that problem solves itself. The seller denies themselves a sale, and no one is ripped off, AND the seller can always repost at a lowered sale price, with the knowledge that their first attempt was probably too aggressive. Ah well, that's my $.02 anywho.

Good topic by the way. :)

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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:00 pm 
 

I still fail to see how the said conversation below is unscrupulous and/or immoral and is somehow adversly affecting the auction:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Potential Buyer: " Dear Seller, do you happen to have a buy it now price in mind?"

Seller: "Well, I did not initally have one, however if you are interested, I will sell it to you for $125.00"

Potential Buyer: "OK, that sounds good to me, I will take it"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Using the above example I am not sure how that can be construed anything more than it is right there in front of you. You may very well think that is is because of the item involved, but I fail to see it.  I fail to see it because of this factor: Apply that exact same conversation to an auction for a B2-Keep on the Borderlands. Is the buyer still being unscupulous/immoral? And to play devil's advocate even further, lets say that same exact conversation takes place on an R1-To the Aid of Falx. Still Unscrupulous/Immoral? Can't be.

With all of that being said, I was not privy to the conversation(s) that took place the other night, so I can't say for sure that is what happened. My only point in the matter is that act of simply asking the seller if he/she has a Buy It Now price in mind is not immoral/unscrupulous/shady or whatever else you want to call it. It is simply a question meant to ascertain the possibility of the buying something right away. Ebay offers it as a feature and it is a legitimate tool for sellers to use. You(in general, not anyone specifically :) ) need to ask yourself if this conversation would be taking place if the BIN was set at $1000.00 and Brette ended up taking it at that price and it didnt fall into BTB's lap. If your answer is "No" than its not about morality at all, it is about being pissed because someone else got a good deal that you(in general again) didn't get.


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:02 pm 
 

The question I asked the buyer was "Is there a BIN for this item?" or words to such effect. I'll happly pay at market price (and sometime above on large lots) for things I want, and if the seller came back with a higher one I would of prob taken that as well. Al's quote below pretty much sums it up...

killjoy32 wrote:i have been on the receiving end of instances like this, where ppl have made me offers for something, which was way below its value. this relates to not only RPG stuff, but other things too. one of my instances was 2 boxes of very old comics that i had. i needed space and decided to just offload them - i stuck an advert in the local paper and someone came to buy em for £25. it wasnt until a few weeks later when i was mentioning it to someone, who nearly collapsed when i told them what was actually in the box. the value of what was there, was close to £1500-2000, but in the end, that was my laziness for not looking into things first before selling them.


At the time he was glad to get what he got for them and got rid of them. The people on here are collectors, some of us serious collectors that have outlaid some sesious money. Our field of knowledge is very specific, you and I may go its worth $x but to someone else it is just a couple of pieces of paper. I sometime watch antique shows and someone will be collecting blown glass or some such and they will bring out a small bowl or vase and say its worth $20,000! If i had it i'd prob toss the thing in the bin, glass bowl.. dust collector.. crap.. in the bin... With the wonders of the internet it pretty easy to plug a couple of words into google and get a good answer. I often think of what teasures I walk past in op shops or markets, I have no expertise in certain areas so I have no idea what to look for. I won't offer a rip off price to a seller on an item I know is a lot more, if its worth $500 I'll offer $500 not $50. however there are people out there that do, esp resellers, after all they have to make a profit (if you do a search on RPGS or R series you can see what some of these people are offering.. wayyyyyyy below the market) on the flip side if they had a creep BIN of $2500 we'd all be bitching that he is trying to rip people off etc, once again I don't have much of a problem with this, a little bit or research will tell you this is overprised, if only you take the time to do some... I have someone that is doing that to me now offering me a couple of mags at about 3 times the market price, now weather he is doing that on purpose or not, to him they may be worth that, i know what I can pick them up for so the chances of him selling them to me are pretty slim;)

Brette:)

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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:18 pm 
 

whew. That was a tension breaker. Thanks Brette :D

But it is an interesting topic. I happen to agree with a lot of what Yama Arashi is saying......and with what BClarkie is saying. Very solid points. I am certainly not an authority on ethics to take a firm position but I watch everyone's opinions with great interest.

In the end we all have gut feelings on what is/was/might be right. Personally, I would much prefer to see an auction go the full distance as I feel $125 just isn't enough for that item. At once, i feel equally good for the person who won it as well as bad for the seller that shed it.


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:51 pm 
 

Last point here (at least for now :) ) for those of you who believe that simply asking the seller: "Do you have a Buy It Now price in mind?" is positive action that adversly affected both this auction and the seller. If you were currently in BTB's position having this wonderful item fall into your lap for much less than what its anticipated value would be, and all of this due to someone else asking the above mentioned immoral/unscrupulous/shady question, would you in fact refuse to take the item and insist on the seller keeping it and setting it up for auction again? I assuming that based on your position(s) in this matter that you would in fact do it. Am I correct in assuming this?


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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 6:58 pm 
 

Yama-Arashi wrote:
I've read plenty of outrage on this board about high prices set by resellers, with accusations that such an action was designed to fleece the unwary. Trying to get a seller to put a BIN on an auction so that you can walk away with a steal is equally distasteful.


Well Yama-Ara you've said what I've always thought but never bothered to post ...it's one set of rules for this little club and another set for everyone else.  Just check out the moral indignation when someone offered this seller 30 pounds for their rare item:

about2608-0-asc-400.html

Of course had it been a "member" that actually managed to pull this off I'm sure there would have been some high fives as it was posted on the recent fun finds thread.  I've also read posts of indignation from "members" who object to bookstore owners looking up prices for vintage D&D items when considering offers made to them.  You are right to point out this flip flopping cause there is a lot of it here.  

Ralf Toth ...that seller DID get ripped off, you aren't just imagining it.  They are really out some money.   When so much is made on this site about valuations what else can one think?

  

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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 7:04 pm 
 

What Brette did was not unethical at all, he simply put a bid on an item and won it, lucky bastard :wink:

Now if you told the guy it was worth $125.00 knowing full well it was worth 5 or 6 times more and then gave him the money; that is very unethical and probably illegal.

I remember a case here in Canada where an art dealer bought a painting from an old gal that was worth thousands, he paid peanuts.  Eventually the truth came out and the dealer had to give her full market value for the item and pay a fine.

You can not knowingly rip somebody off if you are an expert and the person is a layman.  Like I said it is probably illegal. :?

Later

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Post Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2005 7:08 pm 
 

islestrike wrote:
Yama-Arashi wrote:
I've read plenty of outrage on this board about high prices set by resellers, with accusations that such an action was designed to fleece the unwary. Trying to get a seller to put a BIN on an auction so that you can walk away with a steal is equally distasteful.


Well Yama-Ara you've said what I've always thought but never bothered to post ...it's one set of rules for this little club and another set for everyone else. Just check out the moral indignation when someone offered this seller 30 pounds for their rare item:

about2608-0-asc-400.html

Of course had it been a "member" that actually managed to pull this off I'm sure there would have been some high fives as it was posted on the recent fun finds thread. I've also read posts of indignation from "members" who object to bookstore owners looking up prices for vintage D&D items when considering offers made to them. You are right to point out this flip flopping cause there is a lot of it here.

Ralf Toth ...that seller DID get ripped off, you aren't just imagining it. They are really out some money. When so much is made on this site about valuations what else can one think?


What are you a George Bush fan or something? 8O Flip flopping? 8O Let me guess you were the one who offered the 30 pounds....

Above and beyond that, have you read anything anyone has written here besides what you really wanted to hear? Just about everyone here has already posted that "THEY DO NOT THINK ITS RIGHT TO TRY AND DECIEVE THE SELLER :!: " Offering the seller 30 pounds would be deception, but simply asking the seller if they have a Buy it Now price is not. There is a difference. :idea:


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