Mildly Philisophical Question

[VinceBordenIII]

Wife and I were watching American Pickers, and it brought up a question:

You run across something at a garage sale. It is of tremendous worth, tens of thousands, but the seller doesn't know. Maybe he's selling his dead mother's belongings.
Is it ethical to buy the valuable item for 50 cents without telling the seller?

[VisionaryEric]

No. Why would that be ethical? What a stupid question.

[Animal]

It is certainly not ethical.

I was watching some picker show recently. they found a box of costume jewelry. among the things were two items that were not costume jewelry. they were real gold. one was small and the actual gold buyer value on it was a couple hundred dollars. the other was an 18k gold chain. it was more around $2500 value.

they could have easily bought each of them for $1 a piece. But they told the woman, who had no idea. One of the guys only had $2,000 cash on him so she sold them both to him for that amount and the other guy bought the stuff that he had picked and was going to buy.

that kind of karma doesn't come along very often, so you have to take advantage of it. i can't count how many times i have corrected a bill that was in my favor but just didn't seem fair.

[Evil.Fkn.Mean,Nasty]

Those guys once bought some circus art sheets for $1000 and sold them for $20K. They went back and gave the guy $5k. They didnt even know what they were worth.

And on Pawn Stars some lady brought in an egg and wanted $2K. Rick gave her $125K as it was a Faberge egg worth $200K.

Guess you have to be honest with the cameras rolling.

[Wut]

I have mixed feelings, the seller should know what he is selling but I also try to be fair.

Likely I wouldn't know what I was getting either if I bought something later determined to be valuable.

[JackRabbit_Slim]

I think it's a 2 part question..

First question is it ethical. Duh. No.

Second part. Would you do it? Most folks would. I'm on the fence and it would depend on the situation and amount of money we're talking about. If a guy was selling a vintage bike for boatloads less than market value, I'd go one of two ways. If he was an original owner kind of fella or the widow of one, I'd pay a fair price. If he was a nuttsack just flipping the bike and too stupid to do his research then fuck him.

[kwebber]

I don't go to garage sales or anything like that, but if I did, and bought something cheap but later on found oot it was really valuable, I would go back to the person who sold it to me, and piece them out a good chunk. Like 50% of what I got for it.

[PimpDaddy]

We have a crusty old dickhead around here that goes to yard sales and fucks over people as a sport. It's not the biggest deal, but I will never forget he bragged about a salt and pepper shaker set an old lady asked 50 cents for, and he scammed her down to 25 cents...knowing it is Waterford crystal worth a couple hundred bucks. I hate people like that. He has a house and additional barn absolutely stuffed with useless shit he never wanted and will never use, just likes to screw people.

[VinceBordenIII]

My wife, a veteran yard seller, says it’s ok to screw people. I say it isn’t.
The specific case that came up is different: a John Wilkes Booth family album someone bought without knowing what it was. Of course it’s priceless.

I recently sold some tools online. I suspect at least one of the buyers was going to resell it, as he had no interest in the specifics when he came to pick it up. I just wanted it out of my garage.

Always dubious about people who mention church. “I’ll come by to pick it up after church.”

Whatever.

[VinceBordenIII]

On the flip side, beware of crooked antiques sellers. I was at a huge antique and flea market recently, a woman was selling a German helmet with SS runes in it.

“Is this real?”
“Yes...”
“These runes aren't original”
“No, those were added.”
“So you’re selling a German helmet as a Waffen SS helmet?”
“Yes, well.. etc.”

A good helmet might be a couple hundred bucks. A waffen SS helmet is worth thousands.

[necronomous]

Depends on how you look at peoples responsibility for not being stupid. And depending on how you look at it, determines the ethics.

[beagleboy]

The sellers should have known or their family should have taken steps to know what they were selling. Garage sale people spend a lot of time finding those gems.

[CHEEZY17]

I would say it depends.
Finding treasure is part and parcel of garage sale hunting. There's levels though: getting something for a dollar that's worth $100 is different than getting something for a dollar that's worth 5k.

[Animal]

i don't know why, but the one exception i find to this rule is that if both parties (seller and buyer) are neither one aware of the value of something. It could be trash or it could be treasure. There could be a Van Gough under that painting. There could be a gold bar in that locked chest. Maybe that old desk was used by Thomas Jefferson.

In those instances, where neither party knows anything other than maybe the buyer just likes it, then in those cases, if it turns out to be a $million dollar find, then good for the buyer for getting lucky.