Posted By:
Rob D.The words moral and ethical have been tossed around here, and that's fine when you're speaking in a hypothetical sense. But consider this:
On the day that REA posted its auction I identified a card I really want that's part of a 10-card lot. If I win the lot, I will sell the other nine. I can afford the lot but would prefer to buy just the one card. A Net 54 post was made about this very lot and forming a group, and I expressed an interest in joining the group. Unfortunately, the card I want was spoken for. That's totally OK, no problem. Now I'll simply go back to Plan A, buying the entire lot and selling the cards I do not want.
Now, who, if anyone, was unethical? The folks forming the group? They had no idea of my intentions. Me? For wanting to save by money by joining a group I had no part of forming? The bottom line is if I had joined the group, the seller of this lot would have lost out on at least one bidder who would otherwise have bid very aggressively on the lot.
So even though in this case I don't think anyone could be accused of being unethical, the seller would have possibly lost out.