Post #38716 by TheMuggler on Thu, Jun 12, 2003 8:47 AM

People buy, people sell, and when money is involved someone is almost always bound to have their feelings hurt.

I'd like to extend SugarCaddyDaddy's ethical question a bit and see if it still holds water for people who thing that the buyer/seller under question is "unethical" or lacking morals for their capitalist behavior.

Here's an example:

Everyone knows I live in Orlando based on my profile. There are many of us from Central Florida here on TC. If I stop into an Orlando thrift store and see a Ren Clark Severed Head mug for $5.00, and I already have one in my collection, should I:

1. Buy it immediately, then call up another Orlando based TC member who has been searching for this mug for years and offer it to him (or her) for $5.00?

2. Buy it immediately and turn it around for hundreds of dollars on eBay, knowing that a fellow Orlando based tiki central member has been searching for this mug for years (and I already have one)?

If buying something on eBay out from under another TC member (by offering to pay more for that item) and then turning it right around for profit is unethical, then isn't scenario 2 above also "unethical?"

I don't think we can have it both ways.

We can try to excuse it by saying that the thrift store find requires physically going to a location and finding it and that has some "value" but that is really strictly a matter of semantics -- it could be argued that finding good deals on eBay is just as time consuming, and paying more money for that item on ebay also has "value."

How far do we take the ethics of buying and selling tiki objects?

-Mug