Reselling from Classifieds at a higher price?

Nothing is being misrepresented. No one is being taken advantage of. The seller isn't at all obligated to pass along a good deal. There's nothing unethical about this.

 

No harm no foul in my book. No class, either, maybe, but that's not illegal.

 

It's up to the potential buyer to know the value!

 

What I dislike is when someone finds "the deal of the century" and starts a thread about it, then a month or so later they list the same instrument here at a much higher price.

I've seen instruments bought from the Guitar Center used site and sold here at a nice profit. I don't have a problem with it as long as they don't brag about the find on this forum.

 

Well, not unethical but could be borderline. As the OP suggests if someone goes to the classified and talks someone into a good price based upon TB comradeship, and our "family" ties and does it only as a misrepresentation to gain the sympathy of the seller for a bigger discount so they can resell, then obviously this is less than honest and less than fair. But I think generally speaking when things are sold and traded at fair market values, there would be little of this. The little money one might gain reselling is hardly worth the hassle.

On the other hand I can see where someone bought a bass on TB for some amount thinking they'd love it, but after living with it for a while decided that maybe it "wasn't them". So they decide to sell it. But say they aren't REALLY convinced they want to give it up just yet, so they set the price high. They figure hey, if someone wants it at that price fine. If not, then I'll keep it for now and can always lower the price later to get rid of it. Maybe it needs a second chance? So I can see where that could easily happen. It may seem bad, viewed from the outside, but it isn't.

 

This is, of course, how all middlemen make their living, but there are tacky and classy ways to do it.

 

Make an offer of ~$1200 and include a link to the original FS thread....via PM, of course. It would be in bad taste to include the link in the thread, itself, but some people have done it.

Riis

 

First thing I do when looking at something on here is to look up when and for how much it sold. Most things have been recycled many times over.

But knowing what he bought it for means there is a lot of room for movement...

 

Sometimes I've found that listing items too low causes people to think "What is wrong with it?". It might be they are just taking risks on too good to be true deals and then reselling?

 

What an item has sold for previously is totally irrelevant to any future deal. Any deal is either fair or not based on its own merits. Everyone is obligated to know what something is worth before they buy it.

 

If a buyer finds a seller, and they agree on the price, then the deal is the deal. The secondary market has no MSRP. If a member finds a good deal on eBay or the local CL, scoops it up, then lists it here, that is a fair deal. Why should the origin of the previous transaction influence the subsequent? There's a value to being in the right place at the time.

 

Since when is flipping unethical? The person is taking a chance. The first person wanted an easy sale and fast money.

Move along folks. Nothing to see here.

 

Some people don't care what others think about them.

People can decide for their own if they want to give their money to a flipper. That's the power of capitalism - you get to vote with your wallet, and let your views on fair/unfair play out that way.

And still, some people don't care what others think about them. But the reality is that pretty much every problem in society has money at the root of it. That said, good intentions usually don't pay the rent...

 

Employers sometimes use that excuse to pay people less : "Your current salary for this job is based on the one given to you by your last employer, so we're giving you your old salary plus 1000k!".

NOPE! I will take the market rate, dude. If you want to find someone that will take less then look somewhere else.

Anyway, just trying to turn that around for us to a situation where one might be on the seller's side, rather than the buyer's.

In short, I agree with you. The seller still needs to find a buyer--maybe they wont.

 

I've had this happen to me with a bass I sold on a now-defunct site a few years ago, and that same bass ended up selling right here on TB for more.

As indicated above, not illegal, but not classy either. I'm on the OP's side of the aisle, where an instrument is a personal thing and I allot my time trying to play it well, instead of looking for the next one. However, instruments are exchangeable goods at the end of the day and it's not out of order to simply look at them that way. Some of the high volume trader/seller/buyer types do a staggering amount of exchange here and on other outlets, and are fortunate that no licensing or permit is required.

 

Seems douchey to snatch up a good deal just to let it rot in the classifieds hoping to turn a big profit.

 

What is wrong with buying and selling instruments? Nothing. Zero. Nada. Zip.

If you are uncomfortable, don't buy.

Personally, I am all for making money. Unfortunately on the bass side, I tend to buy high and sell low.

 

If someone finds a deal on something and they buy it, then later decide to sell it for more, hey good for them. There are people who take it too far though, like the slime balls who snapped up all the NES Mini's on Amazon last Christmas with the express purpose of turning around and reselling them at a 300% markup. They must have been using some kind of special software because every time Amazon got more in, they sold out before any actual customers had a chance to add them to their cart. I've seen similar things happen with concert tickets too.