Not telling a seller about the value of what they're selling is wrong. amirite?

I'm Pro-consumer, and this sounds like a seller's problem

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I'm pro honest human interactions.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

The instances where this is some shark sales person you're dealing with has to be vanishingly rare. You find these enormous discrepancies through things like yard sales and old-people ran antique shops. I'm not suggesting you go to Best Buy, look at the 50% off marker and call up the CEO about market analytics.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Businesses aren't honest so you why should you make yourself pay more. I'm sort of with you if buying off an individual

by Dooleypamela 1 day ago

Selling something and not doing your own due diligence is wrong and shouldn't be blamed on on the person buying said item at the listed price.

by Excellent_Yak_4090 1 day ago

I mean, it's stupid, but I don't think it's morally wrong. Two wrongs also don't make a right. If you believe what they are doing is a wrong then you have even more of a duty to inform of their misdeed.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Depends on the seller I reckon, like if it's a reseller then I don't see what's wrong with it since they're trying to do the exact same thing to me. They've bought it for less than it's worth and are trying to sell it for more, so why should I not be able to do the same thing.

by Radiant-Search 1 day ago

Not totally, I think there are things to consider like convenience of sale, the work that goes into finding something, etc. There are reasonable differences in price that take these things into account. These are different than trying to make a profit via deception.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

And you as a buyer who is researching an item before buying, trying your luck with lots of items, dont put some "work that goes into finding something"?? It's preciselly the seller who didn't put that work in that is now "paying the price" of now doing research before setting a price. And I'm saying this as someone who hasn't done this ever.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Depends, for most people it shouldn't be that hard to take a few mins to see what the going price for the item is, it's not like I go to a store and tells them that their item costs 2x as much in the other store either. If it is some old person who clearly have no idea then depending on what it is, and how much the value differs then I might tell them, tbh same if it is a nice person who is selling it, but really it depends a lot on what it is. For the most part, if someone has put a price on an item, then i'm not going to question them about it if it seems low, as sometimes people just don't care and just want to get rid of it, they chose the price, so if they didn't like the price, then they shouldn't have set it to that.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

I think viscerally I agree with this. Kind of depends on how professional the seller is. If it's a garage or estate sale or some mom/pop consignment deal I think you should be more mindful. But those are also the places you're most likely to find huge discrepancies and therefore the places people target.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Yard sales are also often about making space. They don't know what to look for, so for them going through everything to find out what's valuable might take more time than it's worth. It's not reasonable to expect the resellers to come out and do their job for them.

by Similar_Weight_5423 1 day ago

Some estate seller sell to be able to pay bills out of need you never know, not telling them about lifealtering things like a painting worth thousands or other antiques, is scummy… for shops tend to I agree

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Again no matter if it's a professional estate sale company or you handling it for your last living parent's estate, it's up to the seller to price things correctly. None of these situations come up on us with no chance for prep, even when a family member dies suddenly. By the time an estate sale is happening there's been more than enough time for you to try and price the items to be sold. Same with a garage sale. Most garage sales I see are "get this crap out my garage/attic TODAY". If they wanted to maximize profit they could simply look what a working NES, GI Joe USS Flagg, etc goes for.

by stoltenbergjoan 1 day ago

I would always assume that the seller is aware of the value of their stock. Money has no morals, if someone wants to sell items without checking their value, that's on them. Is it deceptive? Sure, I agree with that. Does that make it wrong? I've not seen any compelling argument from you that it does

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Not my job to educate the seller on their stuff.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Don't anyone tell OP about the stock market. They'll go nuclear.

by harley12 1 day ago

Not the same thing, at all. Speculative value, especially in the aggregate, is not the same as lying to an old person about the value of their desk so you can make a hefty profit on their ignorance.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Unless you are shorting the market, you are LITERALLY BUYING A SHARE OF A BUSINESS BECAUSE YOU THINK THE PEOPLE SELLING THAT SHARE HAVE UNDERVALUED IT.

by harley12 1 day ago

Shorting is when you think the value is too high. You sell the item with a promise to buy it back at a later date. It's a little confusing, I know.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

Yes. I know. That is why I said "UNLESS you are shorting the market..." Jesus Christ. Actually read what's written before turning on the condescension.

by harley12 1 day ago

This is moronic. No seller discloses everything, why should a buyer teach the seller about their own merchandise?

by Anonymous 1 day ago

If you're selling something it's your responsibility to check what it is worth before putting it up for sale. Do not blame the customer for getting a better deal.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

How is it targeting someone if the seller is too lazy to do the small task of checking what something is worth before putting an item up for sale? I've known a lot of people who troll yard sales armed with phones they can eBay and Amazon verify price estimates for every item they spot. If it's that easy to find what you're selling is worth then the seller has even less excuses to be lazy and not look it up first, then get mad when the customer gets a good deal.

by Anonymous 1 day ago

That's such a weird mentality, it's honestly a little sociopathic, your wrong behavior is justified because someone else should've been more keen on preventing it? It's almost "if you didn't want me to steal your television; whyd you forget to close the garage door?"

by Anonymous 1 day ago

You're trolling

by Anonymous 1 day ago

That is a false equivalency. Nice try though.

by Anonymous 23 hours ago

Instead of just spitting out the Wikipedia list of informal logical flaws or whatever, how about you explain your position.

by Anonymous 23 hours ago

I have already explained my position. The seller is responsible for the pricing and checking beforehand what something is worth, do not expect the customer to do your job for you and do not blame them for getting a better deal than you intended.

by Anonymous 23 hours ago

Theft is illegal, buying something that someone is selling at the price they set is not. You have not made any good arguments in any of your replies and are again making false equivalencies. I'm done here as I have better things to do than continuing on this roundabout with, what I now believe to be, a troll. Good day to you.

by Anonymous 23 hours ago

Legality doesn't determine morality. Why would legal status even play into whether something is slimy or not? I think you're unequipped for this exchange and should do more thinking instead of throwing out boiler plate arguments and rebuttals.

by Anonymous 23 hours ago

When you decide to sell something, YOU decide on the value. Its your possession that you're selling. You own it and therefore decide what you want to sell it for. It is NOT my responsibility or job to do your work for you. Appraisers exist as an occupation for precisely this reason. If you are unsure about what something is worth, hire someone to help you figure it out if you don't have the time/energy/patience to do it yourself. You want me, the buyer, to do the legwork for you? How is that fair? I didn't price the item. I didn't ask you to sell it for the current price. You have no obligation to sell the product and I have no obligation to buy the product if the price is too high(which is far more likely most of the time). I won't be made to feel bad because you didn't do your job.

by Dull-Prune 22 hours ago

Sounds like you were lazy, didn't do research, scammed yourself, and then blamed a buyer for it

by Consistent-Order5577 22 hours ago

Or just do your research before selling something. If you undervalue something and someone buys it for that lower price, you have nobody to blame but yourself. It's YOUR responsibility to research the price of things before selling it.

by Citlalli39 22 hours ago

Nah, this is ultra selfish behavior. Even if someone "should have done the research" that doesn't make you banking on their ignorance justified.

by Anonymous 22 hours ago

I'm not saying you need to buy things at the same price you're selling them for. There are other factors beyond deception that can change value for different people at different times.

by Anonymous 21 hours ago

It's not their responsibility to set your prices for you. That's YOUR responsibility and if you make an error in somethings value, the blame is on you. There are exceptions I would say. If you are at a sale and learn the person is doing it to raise money to afford their childs cancer treatment or something, I think there's a moral obligation to inform them. But if they're just selling just to get rid of it and make a few coins in the process, then no.

by gregorioabshire 21 hours ago

Because it isn't your job. If you inform them it's a nice thing to do, but I don't think it's bad to just pay the price that they themselves made. It's their item and they decide the price, that makes it their responsibility. Your responsibility is to decide whether you want to purchase or not, that's your role in this. On the same vein, they can overcharge too. They're entitle to charge £200 for a cheap lawn chair if they wanted. If people don't buy it that's up to them. You can let them know as was the case before and they can decide to make it cheaper or not, but it's not your responsibility to do that. Your responsibility is to do decide if you do or don't want to buy. It's their item, their decision, their responsibility. The responsibility of selling and pricing of an item lies with the seller. It is not the responsibility of the buyer to decide on pricing. I get what you're saying but it's not wrong to just buy, buying at the stated price is fine.

by gregorioabshire 21 hours ago

"Oh did you know that you can buy this item that's actually worth $200 on amazon?" *proceeds to get charged the $200 instead of the £50 they were selling it for*

by Anonymous 21 hours ago

Yes. That's what you should do.

by Anonymous 20 hours ago

There is a lot of slimy stuff in this world but what you're describing is not one of them, consumers are always looking for value and it is the sellers job to provide that value. This is coming from someone that sold a sealed game for £40 and a week later it was worth £2000..

by Firm_Toe 20 hours ago

That doesn't require deception on the part of the buyer. It certainly doesn't justify it.

by Anonymous 20 hours ago

If someone is happy with a price they got for an item there is nothing wrong in my opinion. If a car dealer sold a car for $50k that I know I can flip for more in another market do I owe him it to him to tell him that? No, it's his job to know that and if he wants to do the work he can sell it himself

by Anonymous 20 hours ago

If someone is selling something at a lower value than it's worth, most will reasonably assume that person is just trying to get rid of it and isn't concerned about maximizing profit.

by Bednarstephon 20 hours ago

I think you can largely tell by how huge the price/value gap is. Like, yeah, at a garage sale you're expecting cheap items people want to get rid of. But if something is like 500x the listing or something then the person selling would probably like to know that, and you should tell them.

by Anonymous 20 hours ago

It's not ideal to raise moral standards so high that everything starts to seem wrong. It could be a good thing to tell the seller but it is simply not wrong to not tell the seller. Not doing good thing does not mean it is a negative things.

by Anonymous 19 hours ago

If the seller didn't do their part to search the value then why is it the buyers problem?

by gaston48 19 hours ago

Basic honesty and integrity.

by Anonymous 19 hours ago

Then you can be the one to pay more for the stuff you buy.

by Slight-Doubt 18 hours ago

Sure. I value honesty and morality over bargain hunting.

by Anonymous 18 hours ago

You go to those places to maximize profits

by Tpowlowski 18 hours ago

Yeah, I get why people do it, but doing it with this mentality of hoping the seller is ignorant enough to undervalue something is inherently deceptive and predatory. You're deliberately seeking flaws in others to profit instead of engaging in honest exchange.

by Anonymous 17 hours ago

lol no, you won't know the motivation behind a price, nor the one that you are seeing in place nor the one that you are seeing online, this absolutely doesn't have any sense whatsoever.

by Extra_Knowledge3395 17 hours ago

Value is relative friend. Entire professiona are made off of this. If that 300 Tiffany's lamp is only worth 20 bucks to that guy then who am I to tell him differently. He probably wanted it out of his house. I also don't see the value. But maybe I know someone who does. Someone who's been looking for that vintage for years. Its worth much more to him than 20. See it's all relative. Anything is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it

by Anonymous 17 hours ago

Yes, value is relative, but relative value doesn't need to rely on deception. We can all be honest and still have relative value.

by Anonymous 17 hours ago

Yeah, I just don't think that involves deception. It might be very easy for you to procure something and very hard for me to. You charge me a premium because you know it's worth more to me and you make a profit because you had to do less to get it. That's fine, everybody is in the know. It's the deception, specifically, that I have an issue with.

by Anonymous 17 hours ago

In the case of a yard sale, estate sale, flea market, thrift store, etc, it is the seller that determines the value of the goods being sold to begin with. The buyer is under no obligation to correct that; in fact, it's expected that haggling can happen in a lot of these cases. What's more, these goods are being resold...their value often does not align with what their original retail price was. All of this to say there is very little morality one can assign to something so fluid as pricing of aftermarket goods. Attempting to ascribe deception to buying or selling it is a bit silly.

by Anonymous 16 hours ago

The opposite is also bad. Deliberately tricking someone into believing something is far more valuable than it actually is, is also bad.

by Anonymous 16 hours ago

And I think that's totally fine. I'm talking about situations where you, as a buyer, know the person must not know the value of something and you're getting it it for a fraction of the value from their ignorance.

by Anonymous 16 hours ago

It is, the mentality of trying to find ignorant people to make a profit from is slimy. And no, it doesn't matter, and I probably shouldn't engage with it, but no I didn't sell an item and regret selling it. Honestly, if I don't want something I usually just donate it. Mostly because I'm lazy.

by Anonymous 15 hours ago

Knowledge is expensive

by Bitter-Spinach-3376 15 hours ago

Going for cheap items is fine, but in your explanation none of that involves banking on ignorance. It could very much be the case that the seller knows that he could list it somewhere, take time, etc. to make the highest profit, but is selling it for much cheaper because he doesn't want to put in that labor. That's fine, that's not banking on someone's ignorance. That's just taking into account efficiency and labor costs

by Anonymous 15 hours ago

It's so easy to fix it. Just be like "hey, this item you're selling for $2 is actually a masterwork painting worth a fortune" it's not some hugely arduous task I'm asking for.

by Anonymous 15 hours ago

It goes the other way around too. Some sellers think their POS is worth a lot more than given. You can discuss this but they usually you give a big "F" you.

by Melvinahudson 14 hours ago

This is also bad.

by Anonymous 14 hours ago