Sunday, March 29, 2015

Yard sale sellers and 'pickers' should both play by the rules



As spring arrives, yard sale season can't be far behind. It's time for some people to clear out their unwanted "stuff" and others to go searching for bargains.

Several years ago, I wrote about my son-in-law finding a classic old fan made by Diehl at a yard sale in Somerville, Mass. He paid the owner 25 cents, took the fan home, cleaned it and fixed the motor. Years later, he sold the fan on eBay for $150.

My son-on-law had no idea what the fan was worth when he bought it; he just liked the look of it and figured a quarter was not too much to spend. Had he known the device was actually worth 600 times what he paid, was he obligated to tell the seller she'd woefully underpriced it?

A similar question arrived in my email this week from D.A., a reader in Ohio: "Occasionally, I come across a story about someone who found a treasure at a garage sale," D.A. writes. "If the person who's put an item up for sale doesn't have a clue as to the actual value, but the buyer knows it at a glance, what's the right thing (for the buyer) to do?"

For D.A., not saying something when you know an item is worth far more than what is being asked constitutes "stealing that treasure." It makes no difference, in his mind, if the seller is a child or adult, destitute or a millionaire.

My stance on yard sales remains the same as it's always been. The seller should try to get as much as possible for all items on sale, and the buyer should try to pay as little as possible. Generally, the seller and buyer meet somewhere in between.

Seasoned yard sale hunters have all sorts of bargain-hunting techniques. Some get to sales early in hopes of having first pick of the best items. Others like to wait until the sale is winding down and the seller might be willing to negotiate on price.

On television shows like American Pickers, buyers occasionally offer a few dollars more for an item than what a seller is asking. However, the responsibility of making sure the seller knows the real value of sale items doesn't fall on the buyer.

With easy access to online auction sites and other databases, it's simple enough for sellers to research what their items might have sold for elsewhere. Those concerned about underpricing should do the research.

If a seller asks a buyer if he or she knows what an item is worth, the buyer shouldn't lie. However, it's not a lie to simply suggest a price.

When it comes to yard sales, the right thing is to play by the rules. Sellers should try to get as much as they can, but price their merchandise well if their true objective is to sell everything. And buyers should go looking with a clear conscience for the best bargains they can find. 


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Do you have ethical questions that you need answered? Send them to rightthing@comcast.net. 

(c) 2014 JEFFREY L. SEGLIN. Distributed by TRIBUNE CONTENT AGENCY, LLC.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Jeffrey, the normal "yard sales" have no comparison to the Pickers we see (and enjoy) on TV. To me and I'd think the vast majority of persons reading "The Right Thing" would agree, the stuff for sale at yard sales is "buyer beware", meaning if the person selling doesn't realize the gem he or she has, that's the seller's problem. There might be exceptions, but normally, no such problems come up.

Charlie Seng

Anonymous said...

I think the question is far more tricky than your simple answer. For most items, I agree with you. If the seller asks $20 for a stereo that would easily sell for $200 on eBay, that’s something the seller cloud have easily figured out for themselves. However, in the case of the Chinese porcelain bowl that recently sold for over $700k at auction and was purchased for $35 at a yard sale in New Haven CT, I’m not sure I agree with you. In that case the seller can not easily determine the value of that asset. Or even if it is valuable. It takes experts and even then, they make mistakes. Additionally, there aren’t enough experts to appraise every bowl sold at yard sales. The premise that the seller should be aware starts to fall apart with talk very rare and extremely valuable items that the average public can’t easily research. In this particular case, the buyer was almost certain at the time of purchase that the seller had no idea it wasn’t a simple porcelain bowl. I’m not sure I find the buyers actions in this case ethical. I’m also not sure it was unethical. It was certainly unscrupulous.