Misrepresentation?

[AllTop8Me]

When a book sold a few months ago at Heritage for $228

 

http://apps.heritagecomics.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=807&Lot_No=6092&src=pr&sid=BDDC7F3245DE9D783993050211EE6A07

 

is it ethical to ignore this fact in your EBay description

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2206710627&category=67

 

and simply state that "this little baby sold for mare [sic] than $400 at a recent Heritage auction," referring to an auction that took place over a year ago?

 

http://apps.heritagecomics.com/common/view_item.php?Sale_No=804&Lot_No=6272&src=pr&sid=BDDC7F3245DE9D783993050211EE6A07

 

Or put another way, where does caveat emptor end and misrepresentation begin?

[kryptonitecomics]

Very shady in deed. Hopefully the buyer is well informed and is willing to up the bid due to wanting the book.

[Timely]

Well you gotta expect any seller to list the highest price his book has ever sold for. It may not be the most recent sale of it, but it is actual and factual. I hope the high bidder realizes the first buyer only paid 10 cents for it!

 

Timely

[garthgantu]

Since it ended at $249 this time around, the seller must have lost money, what with the eBay charges and the Heritage BP...

 

And yes, I do think it's very misleading, to the point of dishonest, to present some old price as in any way indicative of an object's value... *unless* that old price is the most recent sales data available, which in this case, it wasn't. I guess if you said something like "a copy of this book in similar condition once sold for..." that might be okay...

[Timely]

Or you could say, "In the past this book has sold as high as....."

 

Timely

[AllTop8Me]

Since it ended at $249 this time around, the seller must have lost money, what with the eBay charges and the Heritage BP...

 

 

This is a small point, but I thought the Heritage archive lists the price inclusive of BP, in which case the Seller would have had only the EBay fees and, if that was the only Heritage book he won in that auction, the Heritage shipping fee to contend with.