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An ethics question...

Started by lighthouse,

How much do you charge him for the book?  

225 members have voted

  1. 1. How much do you charge him for the book?

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61 posts in this topic

lighthouse

lighthouse

Posted
Posted

A situation similar to this has happened to me more than once... I am curious how the folks here would handle it... or at least how they say they would handle it.

 

You are attending a convention this weekend and one of your buddies who is not going asks you to look for "Adventures of Sword-Man #22" for him. It's a recent issue of a title you don't collect and don't know much about, but he says he will be happy to pay $20 if you can find him a copy. He's not your best friend in the world or anything, but you've done a few deals before and you chat about comics from time to time...

 

While at the show, you happen across a copy of the book priced at $3 and you pick it up for him.

 

 

 

Answer this question first, before reading the next post in the thread...

 

 

 

 

 

 

'House

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murph0

murph0

Posted
Posted

Does he literally say "I'll be happy to pay 20 dollars if you can find me a copy"? If so, it sounds like he's saying he'd give you some extra $$$ for going through the trouble of finding the book for him.

 

Brian

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lighthouse

lighthouse

Posted
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Posted

Now...

 

 

 

A couple days have gone by since you sold the book to your buddy...

 

 

 

And you happen to be checking on eBay...

 

 

 

And you discover that Adventures of Sword-Man 22 is fetching $60 and up on eBay. You know your friend is savvy enough to be aware of it, since it's one of his favorite titles...

 

 

 

 

 

Thoughts?

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Red Hook

Red Hook

Posted
Posted

Yeah, I found it for $3, without any effort. In this situation it doesn't sound like you put in any time finding it, you were going to the con anyway.

 

Consider this. You did a mitzvah (yiddish for good deed - my ex-wife was Jewish). In the grand scheme of things it's no skin off my back. I wouldn't give it a second thought.

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sterlingcomics

sterlingcomics

Posted
Posted

If I was in this situation, buying for someone, all details would be worked out in advance. That way. expectations are set. Almost every problem I see is due to a lack of communication, or a lack of setting expectations.

 

So, in the context of the questions, I would refund the bucks, unless we made explicit arrangements that I could have the remaining "for my trouble".

 

The eBay situation is out of context. Simply an example of greed that I've seen from time to time in the hobby...

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lighthouse

lighthouse

Posted
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You will notice that at no time did I actually mention the name "gman".... tongue.gif

 

What was the book....and how much profit did he make? 893scratchchin-thumb.gif

 

lol... I just wanted to be the first to mention his name in the thread... devil.gif

 

We all flip books, and sometimes personal relationships result in us getting books to flip...

 

I have been on both sides of the equation more times than I can count (you can't be collecting price variants without this coming up sometimes)...

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FlComicFan

FlComicFan

Posted
Posted

your in business to make money selling comics so I'm not sure why you would sell for less then what the person offered unless there is some personal feeling there. If he's a buddy then of course sell it for what you paid for it and consider it a quick favor for a friend Follow that and point 2 is moot, if he was strictly a customer he bought the book at a price he was comfortable paying you made $17 then he turned around and made himself $40 If he was a friend then he made himself some cash and owes you a small favor. Personally I did a lot of "favors"for customers/dealers for no profit for myself and when the tables turned I'm still waiting to get a break. PS hope the thaw is on , those pics you posted with the icicles made me appreciate living in Florida just a little bt more

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ghoulaid

ghoulaid

Posted
Posted

In your poll I answered that I charged him $20. The reason is because that is what he was "happy" to pay. Also, most everyone I know sells on the side so we don't make offers to pay something unless we mean it. I've taken want lists of friends with me to cons and it takes a bit of effort to try to fill them.

 

If later I found out it was going for $60 on ebay - doesn't bother me at all.

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lighthouse

lighthouse

Posted
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One of the problems I have with the $3 response is this...

 

If I ask my buddy to find a book and he passes it on at the same $3 he pays, I may feel bad about asking him to look for books for me. And part of the reason to offer him $20 in the first place is to encourage a transaction to occur. If three times in a row he has been a "nice guy" and just charged me the couple bucks he paid, it's not as likely he will want to make a real effort searching for me...

 

Case in point:

 

I have made no secret of the fact that I am looking for a nice copy of DC Special Series 1, and that I will pay over guide for it.

 

Two months ago on a trip to Canada, I bought a pretty nice copy of that book from Odin88. He made a very reasonable profit on the sale.

 

I am happy he made a reasonable profit on the sale, because it means he is more likely to try to find me the books I want. If there was no incentive beyond friendship, it's unlikely he would look quite as hard.

 

I want him to make money on the books he finds for me because it makes it more likely he will find more in the future... If he just passed the book along at his cost, I might miss out on some other books he would find down the road...

 

 

That's the problem I have with the $3 answer...

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