I spend a lot of my time reading philosophy so I thought I'd chime in here. I've been wanting a Titus card for my set since I started collecting a year ago but I've given up the hunt for now. I'll buy it as part of a larger lot but I don't feel like paying the premium for it knowing what I know about this particular card.
Here we have an unnamed hoarder who has a huge fetish for the Titus 'stache (you can take this literally or figuratively); is trying to realize a profit by driving up prices (i.e. cornering the market), or is trying to stroke his ego by controlling the supply. I don't believe that merely "liking" a card is enough of a motivation to hoard it compulsively, especially when he is in possession of hundreds of copies of the same card.
Ethics teaches us what conduct is to be valued, and what conduct is detrimental, to society as a whole. One test I like to use to determine if a character trait is ethical (or virtuous) is to ask "what would happen if everyone acted in this way?" That is, what would happen if a great number of people began to hoard valuable items compulsively? The world would not be a happy place, I would imagine. This is why vices are toxic to mankind, because if hedonism is valued over everything else, we have chaos.
I do not believe this conduct is acceptable. If you want a profit bad enough, produce something instead of mooching.
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