Quote:
Originally Posted by Exhibitman
That's the sort of response I was hoping we would not have in this thread. I don't think there is a specific price point or percentage at which you can just say that the buyer is "one of those scumbag pieces of $#!t that gives the hobby a bad name" without a lot more information, and when you take that sort of attitude right off the bat, you kill off any conversation about it. I think there is room for reasonable people to differ on the issue. I could point out myriad real-world examples, from the entire web sites dedicated to thrift store finds, to the many transactions we see every day at shows and on eBay, to the guy who buys a raw card and gets a 10 from PSA on it. Everyone who buys a card thinks he got a deal and everyone who sells a card thinks he got a deal. They can't all be right. Every transaction is a zero-sum one: somebody wins, somebody loses. The nature of the win and loss depends on the metrics by which you measure. I've overpaid for the last card I needed to finish a tough set. It was worthwhile to me, even if, financially speaking, it was not an objectively "good" deal. It was a good deal for me so I can enjoy the set.
Not directed at you, but more generally, I don't get the knee-jerk hostility to someone seeing and making a great deal. This is a hyper-capitalist society and economy: the whole point of trade is to make money, to get the advantage. Excluding criminality or fraud--which no one thinks is OK--why is there a tendency to attack people who do it? I bought an item from a walk-in at a show and paid his ask because I thought it was really special. I put it into an auction, and it sold for 17X what I paid. Does that make me a scumbag piece of crap? At the same show, I picked up a card that later sold for a third of what I paid. Should I sue the seller? Not as far as I am concerned. That's how it goes.
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Saying you had hoped we wouldn't have a response like mine, because it kills off any conversation, doesn't sit quite right with me.
Are you saying we should only write things in line with your beliefs and expectations? I don't think so. I've been on this forum for over a decade, and I've read many of your posts. I really don't have that image of you in my mind.
It wasn't a knee-jerk response, nor was it the issue of somebody making money. In your 17X example, I see nothing wrong with that. No, in my opinion, it doesn't make you a scumbag piece of crap. However, in this case, we're talking about a 28,000X flip. It's like finding a way to buy somebody's house for less than twenty bucks.
I wouldn't want to be the one who determines the line of demarcation between good deal and scumbag POS. However, this is definitely across any line I would consider reasonable.