I would say if the sale started at 8 and you got there at 10 and the valuable item was still sitting there I buy it and not say a word. Knowledge isn’t cheap and you just paid yourself.
About the only situation (I have seen this with old cars and car parts) that I would say something is if the widow/widower is selling their spouses’ collection and they are way under priced.
Sounds like theft to me. It doesn’t matter that it was donated. It belongs to Goodwill, they take it. It’s theft.
This is consistent with my point that this how virtually every market for collectibles works, and it is accepted as such by society at large.
Cool, I love old books. If you don’t mind sharing, what are your ten favorites of your collection?
The best I have is a signed first edition of World War Z.
What if the item is obviously worth more than the seller is asking for it, and it’s a personal item? That would probably indicate that either the items are stolen, or that the seller isn’t entirely with it. My step-nan sold my grandad’s WWII medals and his first wife’s jewellery, including her wedding and engagement rings, for literal pennies, because she had Alzheimer’s.
(The first wife, my grandmother, had been brutally murdered, and the family deeply regretted the loss of her jewellery, which probably wasn’t worth a hell of a lot, but much more than pennies. The buyer wouldn’t have known that, but they would have been able to guess that wedding rings and medals have sentimental value, which makes it more reprehensible).
I assume most of you would consider that an unethical transaction, so there are limits to “well, if they’re selling it for that price…”
At the other extreme is a professional dealer who underprices something through lack of knowledge, but it’s reasonable to expect them to have known what they were selling. Then, well, tough titties, you win, they lose.
Everything else is in between, and you have to choose where your boundaries lie.
The nephew searching through the Goodwill bin is making an effort beyond what the sellers are willing to go through, and finding buyers is part of that effort rather than the intrinsic value of the item (like things made of precious metals). They earned that money, and good on 'em.
A few years ago I posted in a thread that I’d decided to not have a handgun in our house. I got a PM expressing interest in the gun. I stated a price I thought was fair. When we met at a gun shop to do paperwork, he told me I wasn’t asking nearly enough. He gave me double what I’d asked, and said he was still getting a great deal.
A year or so ago, I sold a rare Magic The Gathering card for $500. One of the first messages I received about was a buyer informing that I had the edition wrong. He explained it was Unlimited not Beta. I was apologizing and explaining that it was an honest error and I wasn’t trying to cheat anybody. He explained that Unlimited meant it was worth about $200 more than I had it priced at. I was deeply thankful. His act stands out as righteous and I doubt I would have done the same in his place.
First, some people do intentionally sell things that would appear to be personal and sentimental. But in this case, the seller was not merely underinformed but incompetent to conduct business. That is ethically wrong and possibly illegal.
Agreed (I don’t think it was illegal where I live but it’s clearly ethically wrong). But at a garage sale, you don’t really know if the sellers are competent or not. My step-nan was always, um, eccentric - I suspect she sold the stuff to someone or other on the estate who was well aware of her condition, but it is possible that a stranger wouldn’t have known just because of her behaviour.
It would be the price that should indicate to them that something was wrong (this was in the late '90s, BTW). And it’s an extreme example - real, but extreme - that I posted mainly because some people were of the opinion that it’s always justifiable to only pay what was asked.
Once you accept that some sales aren’t ethically justified, you’re accepting that there’s a grey scale rather than black and white right and wrong.
Life is a million shades of gray.
To the natives, they are just worthless rocks.
I can’t really see why it would be. That’s just business.
It would be difficult to name ten, as they are all special favourites in their own way.
There are some standouts, however: my six first edition hardbacks of James Bond novels, for example, all with original dust jackets. I’m still collecting those; my rare bookseller will let me know when she gets one in, and usually gives me first crack at it.
Then, there are my Dorothy Parkers: After Such Pleasures (first edition, signed), Enough Rope (unsigned, but with the original dust jacket), and Death and Taxes (first edition, signed, and with marginalia by Mrs. Parker). These are–to me anyway–the treasures in my collection. My bookseller is still looking for a first edition, signed or not, of Sunset Gun.
Neil Gaiman’s Coraline, (first edition, signed by both Gaiman and illustrator Dave McKean, and with a cartoon sketch by Gaiman).
And my “space collection,” consisting of the memoirs of John Glenn, Scott Carpenter; and a novel by Buzz Aldrin. All signed first editions.
There are others in my collection, of course, but these came to mind first. I suppose that if I went into my library, I could name many more. Hope this answered your question!
Thanks for answering. Sounds like a great collection.
I have a few Neil Gaiman books I would love to get signed if I ever see him at a Con.
I don’t understand the bit about the medals. I wouldn’t have thought those would have any significant value to anyone, other than the recipient and maybe some loved ones to whom they would have sentimental value. Even leaving aside entirely the question of taking advantage of the seller, why would anyone buy them?
I have found that there’s a collector’s market for just about anything. Military memoribilia (including medals) is very collectible.
They are sellable as medals. They’re also made of silver, so that can be melted down. For example, this was one of the ones my Grandad would have had:
He had more than one, but I can’t remember how many.
Exactly. Is the item worth $$$ right now, as is? Or is it potentially worth $$$, after time and effort to make it salable?
I have a friend who knows how to fix analog appliances. He’ll buy something for a few dollars at a garage sale/flea market/thrift store/whatever, or scoop it up from the curb on trash day for nothing, then fix it and sell it (or occasionally keep it for his own use). For instance, a while back, “Tom” found a 1950s Hamilton Beach stand mixer that supposedly didn’t work. He identified the missing component, replaced it, and sold the restored mixer for $50. And you might say “Butbutbut…the person who discarded it could have done that themselves and made that money, or saved what they spent on a replacement!” Not really. Unless they had his skills, they would have had to pay someone else to restore it, and that would likely have been more than $50. Whereas, Tom is his own labor force. His soldering iron, and whatever else he uses, were paid for years ago, so his labor is free. He puts in the effort, he gets 90-to-100% profit. Perfectly ethical, IMHO.
I suspect nobody here is going to argue with that being unethical. But, who knows? I’d be curious to hear if anyone thinks there’s anything wrong with profiting on something you’ve bought cheap and fixed up to sell. That’s like a non-insignificant portion of the housing market right there. Or, well, the entire restoration industry. The ethical quandary in the OP is about knowledge – seeing, say, that Hamilton Beech stand mixer in full working order but knowing that there’s a huge collector’s market out there that will buy that particular mixer for $500, while this dude in his garage is selling it at $20.
For garage sale items, the comparable price should probably be based around what the seller could get with a trivial amount of effort. If their $20 mixer could be sold for $500 at a pawn shop, then maybe they might do that. But if the seller would have to figure out how to advertise in the collectible mixer community, deal with all the back-and-forth questions, pack up the item for shipping, deal with remote payment, etc., then the comparable price isn’t really $500. All that time and hassle has to be factored in.