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Ethics, Experience & Education Worth Anything?

Started by PovertyRow,

81 posts in this topic

PovertyRow

PovertyRow

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Pov, I've seen on national television examples of people buying stuff cheap at garage sales or antique stores, some knowing and some not knowing what they got till later. The general consensus by the public, is good for them for getting a deal. I don't see any difference between this or getting an Action comic #1 for $10.00 at a garage sale. I also suspect there may be people spending many hours going through a lot of junk to find that treasure. Why not benifit not only from your knowledge, but your time as well. In my view, you get a deal once in awhile...good for you.

 

 

 

 

 

I know what you mean. Am a fan of Antiques Roadshow (prefer the American over the English version though) and really enjoy Bargain Hunt.

 

I confess to intentionally being as I was being in that last post. It is a nice counter to the rigid seller good/buyer evil b&w.

 

But truth be told, I DO feel as I expressed as well. I am a most damnable person to get into an argument with and I KNOW I can be a pain in the butt when I get my teeth into something. but the whole b&w thing almost makes me insane.gif

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greggy

greggy

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Pov, I've seen on national television examples of people buying stuff cheap at garage sales or antique stores, some knowing and some not knowing what they got till later. The general consensus by the public, is good for them for getting a deal. I don't see any difference between this or getting an Action comic #1 for $10.00 at a garage sale. I also suspect there may be people spending many hours going through a lot of junk to find that treasure. Why not benifit not only from your knowledge, but your time as well. In my view, you get a deal once in awhile...good for you.

 

 

 

 

 

I know what you mean. Am a fan of Antiques Roadshow (prefer the American over the English version though) and really enjoy Bargain Hunt.

 

I confess to intentionally being as I was being in that last post. It is a nice counter to the rigid seller good/buyer evil b&w.

 

But truth be told, I DO feel as I expressed as well. I am a most damnable person to get into an argument with and I KNOW I can be a pain in the butt when I get my teeth into something. but the whole b&w thing almost makes me insane.gif

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rob_react

rob_react

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Pov, I've seen on national television examples of people buying stuff cheap at garage sales or antique stores, some knowing and some not knowing what they got till later. The general consensus by the public, is good for them for getting a deal. I don't see any difference between this or getting an Action comic #1 for $10.00 at a garage sale. I also suspect there may be people spending many hours going through a lot of junk to find that treasure. Why not benifit not only from your knowledge, but your time as well. In my view, you get a deal once in awhile...good for you.

 

 

 

 

 

I know what you mean. Am a fan of Antiques Roadshow (prefer the American over the English version though) and really enjoy Bargain Hunt.

 

"An Action 1 for $10? That's cheap as chips! I think there's good profit in that."

 

d_dickinson_image.jpg

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PedigreeMan

PedigreeMan

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That is something of a stretch. Maybe you haven't been to many yard sales. I've met some fun people and I've met some major league jerks who treat you like doodoo. Why is this yard sale owner automatically elevated to a superior moral and ethical level?

 

Here's an interesting story about my regular comic dealer:

 

When he was a teenager in the late '70s, a handyman his parents had over to do some work noticed that Terry collected comic books. "I've got a box of them somewhere ... I'll sell 'em to ya if yer interested," he said. "But I want 100 bucks for 'em!" Terry, after a bit of pondering, replied yes, and a time was arranged for them to make the exchange.

 

The day eventually came around, and the handyman drove up in his car. Without even showing Terry the books, he asked for the cash. The teenager, being young and dumb, handed over his hard-earned $100. The guy, in turn, jumped out of his car, popped open the trunk, lifted out a box of beat-to-heck books, dropped it heavily on the ground, dashed back into his vehicle, and sped off.

 

"Hmm, odd," thought Terry.

 

Things became quite clear when the young man started going through the box. POS after POS stared back at him. For every Fair conditioned Archie he discovered, he became more and more convinced that the handyman had screwed him.

 

His mother, watching her son go through this pile of worthless paper he had spent so much money on, felt her heart breaking. Eventually, she left the room.

 

A few minutes later, though, she hears whooping and hollering coming from the room. She turns, and sees Terry running out with a huge smile plastered across his young, naive face. In his hands, he holds ... a beautiful copy of Amazing Spider-Man #1.

 

Good & evil ... black & white ... shades of gray.

 

(Joe Collector need not respond unless he has something more substantial to say than, "What goes around comes around.")

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Mushroom

Mushroom

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Just off to the garage sales (it is Saturday morning here). Hope to find treasure after treasure after treasure, but for you Joe I will take care of all those people with the signs that say "I am selling something because I don't want it anymore but I don't know if it is a POS or not so please let me know if you know what it is worth and then we can strike a deal." foreheadslap.gif

 

Yeah right. Joe, if they want a market price then they should take it to a dealer.

 

 

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garthgantu

garthgantu

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Just off to the garage sales (it is Saturday morning here). Hope to find treasure after treasure after treasure, but for you Joe I will take care of all those people with the signs that say "I am selling something because I don't want it anymore but I don't know if it is a POS or not so please let me know if you know what it is worth and then we can strike a deal." foreheadslap.gif

 

Yeah right. Joe, if they want a market price then they should take it to a dealer.

 

Um, taking it to a dealer is a sure-fire way to get all of 10% of the "fair market value"...! Or maybe you were being facetious?

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MikeS

MikeS

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Just off to the garage sales (it is Saturday morning here). Hope to find treasure after treasure after treasure, but for you Joe I will take care of all those people with the signs that say "I am selling something because I don't want it anymore but I don't know if it is a POS or not so please let me know if you know what it is worth and then we can strike a deal." foreheadslap.gif

 

Yeah right. Joe, if they want a market price then they should take it to a dealer.

 

 

Shame on you mushroom for going to a garage sale!! Haven't you learned by now that only old/senile folks or otherwise mentally unstable people have garage sales? Why else would they be willing to part with those old t-shirts for ten cents when they must have a retail value of $1 or $2? Stop taking advantage of those people 893frustrated.gif

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Mushroom

Mushroom

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You bet ya (laughs maniacally). I already have 10 mint fruit of the looms from the 80's. I am going to corner the market.

 

Funnily enough I did pick up a mint Guns 'n' Roses 91 aussie tour t-shirt for $1 from St Vinnies yesterday. Really, Really cool and yes Garganthu I was being facetious.

 

From now on I am going to give everybody JC's email address so that they can get a fair market value for their goods. 27_laughing.gif

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harveyfan323

harveyfan323

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Chuck R clearly felt guilty about paying so little for the Church collection, or he wouldn't have gone back and paid money for the essentially worthless artwork. He felt guilty about it on some level. I don't think he "should" have felt guilty, but apparently he did.

 

Regarding his rationalizations about bringing the great collection to the world and the altruistic nature of that, I don't know he actually believes any of that. It could just be a public relations move (lie) in order to make his business appear "friendlier" to the comic buying public. Of course it turned out good for the comic collectiong community that he "rescued" this great collection, but this good was only an accidental byproduct of his healthy greed/desire for profit.

 

If I was at a flea market and found an Action #1 for $1, I would certainly buy it and leave. Any other "fair price" for the book would be a 100% arbitrary determination. Why is $1 a "morally" better or worse price to pay than $100 or $100,000 or $1,000,000??? If you think $1 is too cheap, and $1 million is too expensive, then how would you determine a "fair" price? There is no way to do this except by arbitrary means which is why $1 is a fair price just like the price for the Church colleciton was completely fair.

 

The bottom line is that as far as ethics go, they are 100% subjective. There is nothing inherently "right" or "wrong", so it all comes down to how you personally feel about something. If you feel it is right to pay $1 for an Action #1 for a flea market, then you are correct. If you feel it is a horrible and "evil" thing to do to pay $1 for an Action #1, then you are just as correct.

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