Yard sale ethics: Bargain or rip-off?

People set their prices for their merchandise. So, when I buy, I don't try to make sure they get the market value. It's a yard sale. I picked up a very nice mink stole and asked the price. The guy said, "$1, it's not even real." Yes, it was. I took it to the car, got my dollar, and paid him. I feel no guilt.

I know antiques and prices. It is not my job to make sure people get more than they are asking. If I wanted to pay top dollar, I would only shop at antique stores.

Sometimes, when I see an item underpriced and I don't want it and the seller is poor, I take it to the homeowner and tell them what to price is more in line. If they have a vase for a quarter and it is worth $20, I tell them to put $5 on it. I refuse to pay antique store prices for merchandise at a yard sale. So do most people.

I bought a male urinal, green enamel with the manufacturer's sticker still on it for a quarter. Less than 24 hours later, I sold it for $8 at a friend's yard sale. I paid the price asked...nothing more and nothing less.

If I bought something and got $10K for it later, I would be inclined to go back and give the person a $100 gift.

I cannot be responsible for how people price their yard sale offerings.

      I am an avid thrift store/ yard sale shopper and I have found some VERY good deals over the years.  I do not feel guilty about my finds.  To me, it depends on this:  If the item is priced and I pay the price then it is a purchase.  The seller had to pick it up and examine it in order to price it and should have known that it was of some greater value.  However, if, for example, I bought a purse and got it home to find a diamond ring in the bottom of one of the pockets, I would then feel some obligation to take it back to the seller and offer to give it back.  I look at it this way:  If I paid top dollar to buy a painting that I thought was valuable and it turned out to be a copy of an original but the seller never claimed it was real, should they be obligated to return my money?  No, it would be my fault, not theirs.  Let the buyer beware.  That goes for the seller, also!  

     The strangest, but not the most valuable, deal I ever made was when going through some junk jewelry priced at 25 cents per item I came across a $2 bill that had been folded to form a ring.  I told the lady in charge but she said it was okay to take it for the 25 cent price.  I could stand deals like that all day long!

I do not feel what the buyer bought  was unethical.  I have been doing  flea markets, garage sales, thrift shops etc.  turned items and made money.  There is nothing wrong with it, if you gave the person what he wanted then the point of sale is over.  If you find it worth a lot hurray for you. Is it not the idea to find a bargain?  I have done it for 25 years selling and buying.  Half the stuff on ebay/craiglist comes from someone who put his/her time in looking for things to resell and make money.     Now twenty five years later, they have make TV programs for what I do. Pawn Stars, the pickers, auctions.    I just did this my whole life, 65 now.  I took my family one year on vacation to Europe from  the money made selling junk/treasures one summer. Hey we all can't be CEO's.  A buck is a buck selling and buying is not illegal.  

News paper ads can be bargains too.

A few years ago I was running a business selling new & used canoes.  One spring a little old lady had listed a new canoe for the $50 her late husband had told her it cost.  Unfortunately every person who came out that spring had seen the add on a canoe that should have sold for $850, so it was much harder to bring them into reality.

It is the seller's responsibility  to know the price and value of an item.  I have spent a lot of time and money to learn what I know and if someone else does not take the time to look up the value, that is not my problem.  Please realize that about 90% of the garage sales I go to have nothing but junk!  I have to make up for the time and gasoline I spend looking at all the crap before I find something good.

Finally, I do not get up at 0600, or earlier, on a Saturday, to pay full value. If I wanted to do that, I would go to an antique store.

In other words, if you get a good deal, be happy, take it and don't worry about it.

Since when is it unethical for one's knowledge to be anything other than added value?

Pity the poor antique dealer, They have a very tough lot -

1. Most businesses have regular distributors. You can order more shoes for a shoe store, more lettuce for a supermarket or more cars for a dealership with a phone call. Antique dealers most put in hundreds of man-hours acquiring inventory from disparate source, many of which are one-shot deals. Few businesses require as much time buying merchandise as they do selling. Not to mention big expenses for travel.
2. Most modern businesses have some form of financing from suppliers, and may also have credit lines. For antique dealers, this is almost unheard of. When you walk into an atique store, you aren't looking at merchandise that is in float, financed of floor-planned by somebody else. You are looking at the dealer's own money tied up in merchandise. A car dealership or a convenience store wouldn't survive a week on this basis.
3. An antique dealer generally has to make pruchase decisions on a short cycle, if not on the spot. Dealers have to take risks on things that might have value, only to find out that the piece they bought is more common than they thought, is a fake, has been damaged, has had parts replaced or lack some essential feature for which they didn't account. Ethical dealers will take the loss on such items rather than passing on their mistakes to someone else.
4. The range of expertise among antique dealers, especially the small ones that handle the widest variety of items, requires considerable time and expense in research. Ask most dealers what is themost valuable thing they own, and they are likely to respond, "My library."
5. The sales volume fo rmost antique shops is quite low. When was the lasdt itme you had to wait in line at an antique store? How many times have you wandered into the same store and recognized unsold merchandise?

Put all that together and tell a dealer who wants to run a legitimate business that is placed where customers can find it and will come regularly (read - "High rent expense"), then a dealer needs to see an average mark-up of 150% in order to make ends meet.

This isn't to say that people buying at yard sales have complete ethical license. An honest dealer, if asked to make an offer for an item, should offer a fair price based on his need for a reasonable mark-up, or should ask the seller to set their own price themselves. If the seller isn't willing to do the very same research that is required of the buyer to put a price on the item, then that is their own choice.