Ethics

[herr_oberst]

The Fuchs-find thread got me thinking. (ouch. I gotta stop that)

• You buy something and sell it for a lot more than you paid, because the seller didn't know what he had. Do you make it right by offering the seller part of the profit?

• How about this. You buy a desk at a yard sale, and when you get it home, you find an envelope with a huge stash of cash taped to the bottom of one of the drawers.
Keep the cash? Give it back? Give part of it back?

• Or, you buy a painting at goodwill, because you like the frame. When you take the dust cover off the back, you find a certifiable first draft of the Magna Carta, thought to be lost for centuries.
Who owns that valuable document? You? Goodwill? The state? Great Britain?

• Maybe you're putting a sprinkler system in the backyard and you find a coffee can full of gold doubloons. Yours to keep?

I have a pretty good idea what I would do in each of these cases:

The Fuchs and the doubloons would be my profit to keep.

The envelope of money, I like to think I'd give it back. Fortunately, I haven't been in that position.

The Magna Carta would be sold to the highest bidder. A generous percentage to Goodwill.

Hows about youse guys and gals? What would you do?
Ever been tested? What did you do?

[ckelly78z]

Buyer beware, seller beware. It's a two way street, it's not my job to educate people on thier stupidity.

[1990C4S]

What I buy is mine. I bought 'everything', the desk and the contents, the picture, the frame, and everything in-between.

If I sell something, I sold 'everything' .

It is the sellers job to ensure he only sells what he intended to sell.

Caveat emptor. Same goes for the seller....

[GH85Carrera]

I have never been lucky enough to be in that position to test my ethics.

One couple that I admire bought the house next door to my grandparents. The lady that had lived in the house had owned a jewelery store for may years. He kids emptied out the house and thought they had found all the valuables.

A few years after the sale of the house the new owners were in the basement and noticed one brick was sticking out just a little and the grout was not right. They investigated and found a small pouch with a handful of diamonds.

Now that would be tempting. They were 100% legal owners now and no one knew of the diamonds. Sell a few for cash and store the rest as a retirement plan. Do it slowly and the IRS would never know.

They did the honest thing and gave them to the heirs of the former owner.

[Rickysa]

Just do the right thing.

Not because "someone" might be watching/judging you, but simply because it's the right thing.

[motion]

There can be a million reasons why a seller sells something for less than market value. Its impossible to get in their mind and try to figure out if a mistake is being made. I recently had a good friend sell me a bike. He knows what it was worth, and so did I. When the time came for me to ask his price, the number he gave was less than half the real market value. We both knew what was happening here.... I would be trusted as the caretaker of the bike, and I wouldn't flip it for a quick profit. So, the bike is here to stay. If I ever need the money, the other bikes go first.

Every situation is different. I don't see anything wrong with the OP's purchase, except possibly for the part where he negotiated the asking price down, even when he suspected he was getting a pot of gold. That has me scratching my head.

[URY914]

If you had found a crack in one of the wheels would you have taken it back and wanted a refund? Buyer and seller beware.

[porsche4life]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

Buyer beware, seller beware. It's a two way street, it's not my job to educate people on thier stupidity.

This is my take. I make all my buys online. My thought is if someone is able to post an ad online, they are smart enough to do research on their price too. If they choose not to, that is not my concern.


Yes, I flip **** I buy online ALL the time.


I recently flipped a truck I bought from my college room mate. It was running poorly and wouldn't leave his driveway. He was ready to trade it in and take what they offered, so I paid him $500 over that, CASH, and went and got it. I put in a fair amount of sweat equity, and some $$ in parts in it before I flipped it. He knows I made a profit, but didn't care because he was done with the truck, just wanted the most he could get out of it without doing anything

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by ckelly78z

Buyer beware, seller beware. It's a two way street, it's not my job to educate people on thier stupidity.

Yup. I've had a lot of good deals. I've had a lot of good deals go bad when I find more issues than I expected. You win some, you lose some.

I don't, however, stoop to lying or playing games to get a good deal. If we can't come to an agreement then life goes on.

[MBAtarga]

What if you bought a dresser off CL (instead of a desk) and you found the previous owner's unmentionables?

Today's Craiglist score

[Nostril Cheese]

Ive had the chance to buy old valuable cars for nothing. Owners didnt know what they were worth. I couldnt ever take advantage. Helped sell a few and got 10% (which was still good money).

[HardDrive]

It honestly depends on the person selling it. I know that makes for extremely murky moral territory, but thats how I feel. I certainly wouldn't be taking advantage of old ladies. But it I bought something from an antique dealer, non issue, its mine now sucker.

[jcommin]

It is easy to teach children ethics, see examples of public figures who trash them and try to explain the rational for the behavior . I see media exploitation and those who break the law get a slap on the wrist. I have seen political and corporate ethics get re-defined. My own ethics have changed over the years. It seems like I have re-defined the bottom.

I won't do anything that jeopardizes one's well being or safety, I will lie if telling the truth puts anyone in harms way. Everything else is fair game.

And it's sad. I work in Corporate America and every time something scandalous, unethical or illegal occurs, we investigate, look for lessons learned, state we won't do it again, search for the guilty and punish the innocent. All is good for a while and we go back to the same old, same old. I have seen denial and been lie to - I'm glad I'm at the end of my career. I know why people walk away from the world and look for a simpler life.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

This is a subject I think a lot about.

I go both ways on this: Seller should do his research on value vs. taking advantage of great opportunities, sometimes at someone's expense.

My 69S sat in a field in TX for 20 years. Seller, an older gentleman, wanted $2000 for it. After confirming what he had, and flying down to get the car, I gave him $4K. And about $1K of clothing for his grandchildren. We both sleep well to this day. It was WAY before the bubble BTW, many folks on Technical thought the car was too far gone to restore. It's actually a 1 of 1 car.

But if you are at Hershey and have a pair of .04 Fuchs for $200, I am happy to buy them and sell for $1K on Early S Classifieds. You're at Hershey!

When I get good deals on parts cars, I always give away a lot of stuff for free. Keeps my karma in balance. The good luck I have in buying cars and parts is otherworldly. So I like to give back as much as I can.

[Rick Lee]

It's not unethical at all to pay what a stranger is asking for something. Now, if you try to knock them down and give them some schpiel about how that particular year is undesirable or some other BS reason why you should get it for less, when you plan to flip it, that'd be unethical. Buy a desk at a garage sale with an envelope full of cash in it? No problem. Would you take it back if you had instead found a rare gun there, which might have been a crime gun and the seller or previous owner was trying to get rid of it?

I listed a Glock on Backpage two weeks ago for $100 more than I paid for it OBO. Within 20 min. I had 20 offers and one for full price, which I took. Am I unethical for charging the guy more than the local gun store would have because he was too lazy to shop around?

Two kinds of problems in the world - theirs and mine. That's one of theirs.

[onewhippedpuppy]

Originally Posted by NotaBRG

When I sold my '71T I had a deal in place and then found out how much the 'S' motor was worth. I went forward with the agreed upon price for the T.

Bitter??? No I'm not bitter..

But I do wish I'd done a better job of getting all of my information in place before I placed it for sale.

Been there, I know that sinking feeling when you realize that you just undercharged for something. But I've never backed out of a sale, even the time that I accidentally quoted the wrong price verbally for a car.

[arcsine]

I recently purchased a guitar on EBay that was advertised as 'broken'. It was a very pretty guitar and I was in need of a project so I bid high and won it at $167. Please note that this guitar was essentially new and sells at $500-600. On receiving it, I busted out the tools and found one fret was too high. I invested a relaxed hour of time and a tall bourbon taping up the neck, doing a fret leveling, crowning, polishing and restringing it. Plays like a dream.
No ethics in play here as the seller got what he wanted and I got a screaming deal on a beauty of a guitar.

[Dantilla]

I found some loose change under the seat of a 944 I bought at an auction.

I kept it! What a scoundrel I am!

[1990C4S]

When someone comes up with their own price and it's too low, that's their issue.

I believe someone here bought a very nice 'older car' from someone who did not know what it was worth at a rather low price. Seemed shady to me.

If someone admits they are not knowledgeable and asks you what something is worth, you need to be honest.

[Rick Lee]

I've won plenty of eBay auctions for way, way less than something was worth. I'm a sniper and proud of it. Once or twice the seller simply refused to ship and deleted their eBay accounts, rather than let me have it for the price it closed at.