Moral Question

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Posted By: Ryan Christoff

It's disheartening to hear such lawyerly advice given to this "moral" question that was posted.

Yes, from a legal standpoint, Hal has given you good, sound advice.

Legally, you can get over on this lady and laugh your way to the bank, but I get the feeling that the question was posted because, deep down, the answer was already known.

I can't tell you what you should do in this situation, but I can tell you that if it were me, even if the cards were offered as a gift with no strings attached I would pay her a fair price for them. A fair price doesn't have to mean retail, although if it were something for my collection I would gladly give full retail even if she didn't have an idea of the item's worth. In this case, it seems like a fair price would be a wholesale price you were reasonably sure was the absolute least you'd get if you sold it all.

I've declined a generous offer from a board member in the past who offered to GIVE me several trimmed cards I needed from a rare set that I was trying to complete. Since I knew I would ultimately need upgrades and not truly need the trimmed cards, I declined. I would have sold or traded them later on, so how could I accept them knowing they were given in an effort to help me complete my set? I didn't feel I was the one who should profit from the cards.

They were not worthless and could have easily been sold. But just because something is offered for free, that doesn't mean it needs to be exploited.

And I disagree with David, too. It doesn't seem certain that she means to give them as a gift. She acknowledged that the cards must have some value. When she asked if he wanted them, she may have meant "Do you want to buy them?" She didn't say "Do you want them for free?"

For future reference, if I am ever selling a card and some board member contacts me about it and I say "Do you want that card?" please do not assume I am offering you the card for free. And please don't take me to court because of my "exact words." Didn't everyone learn a valuable lesson about "exact words" from all the trouble Greg got into in that one Brady Bunch episode? Let's not forget that due to his exact words, he had to take Bobby along with him on a hot date at the drive-in. It ruined his Saturday night!

I can tell you this: if someone tried to get over on my mother by hiding behind some legal cloak of it being a "gift," you can be sure that person would regret it later.

All that said, I am confident that the right thing will be done here simply by the fact that the question was posed. It shows there is some moral compass in action and I bet both parties are going to walk away happy from this transaction, if there is one.

Thanks for your post, Charles.

-Ryan Christoff