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In lugnet.market.shopping, Larry Pieniazek writes:
OK - I'm not the same Simon :) but I'll bite on this one.
I've been watching the way things have gone with the blue hopper
cars with some growing concern - and I don't think everyone
here has exactly behaving in a particularly good way over them -
which is ironic considering the row over certain sellers on Ebay
who are flogging McDonalds sets.
It's great when you can make money by providing a useful
service to other people. That's capitalism at it's best - when
everyone benefits. I've bought sets myself before intending them
to auction them off - they've always been old sets I've stumbled
across which I know are not available elsewhere. I'm happy - I make
a bit of money. Someone else is happy - they get a set they'd not
otherwise have been able to get. I don't think that's any different
from what a shop does - it makes money by making products
easily available to people.
But here we've got a situation where a shop had a supply of sets
which it was willing to sell by phone and
at normal retail to ANYONE - no matter what
country they were in. By buying and auctioning blue hopper cars you
are not helping make those sets available to people because those sets
were ALREADY available to those same people. The Busy
Bee phone number has even been plasted across lugnet quite a bit now
so people don't even have to look it up! (And in answer to someone
elses question (can't remember who), British companies do not
usually charge any surcharge for credit card payments).
All that people who are auctioning hopper cars from BB appear to be
doing is forcing their bidders to pay more than they would otherwise
have paid. How do the bidders benefit from that?
In some ways that's even worse than what the Ebay
McDonalds sellers are doing - they may be misleading their buyers
but at least they are not (by buying up a scarce set) *forcing* buyers to
buy from them instead of getting the sets at normal retail.
Now to your credit, Larry, you have declared on at least some of your
auctions where you got the sets from. I'm not sure whether everyone
would have done that. You also say you are selling some sets on a special
deal. I don't know what the details are but I can see that might make
a difference to the ethics of this - I've yet to be convinced either way on
that.
And if you can argue there is some way that you are providing a
service to your bidders then I'm open to persuasion.
But the crux of my argument is that I regard it as good when businesses
make money by providing a service to customers. If people are finding
ways to make money without providing a service (or in a way
that actually harms the interests of their customers)
then that's wrong. Yeah,
I can understand the temptation. Hell, *I* was tempted when I saw Richard
DaCalimito's posting offering to buy some 4536's. Slightly different, because
that was for sets I'd already bought for my own use. But it really made me
think 'do I want my blue hoppers that much?' So I can see the temptation to
buy and sell at a profit. But I'm still inclined to say it's not morally right
in
this case.
Simon
http://www.SimonRobinson.com
> Simon said:
> > Pity about the 4536's, if only more had gone to people who wished to
> > build them not sell them :-(
>
> Thanks for the defense, Frank...
>
> My plan is to use these hoppers to accomplish two goals. I will sell
> enough off to pay for what I bought plus a little extra, but that should
> leave me with 20-30 to keep easily. I am also giving the GMLTC
> membership a special deal on some of them... The little extra is to
> defray some of the flack I take at home about how I never sell anything,
> stuff is just piling up, this is a huge loss, get that LEGO out of the
> basement, etc...
>
> I plan to, if Paul will accept it, give Busy Bee a little something
> extra(1) because they sold these for WAY too low, and I want Busy Bee to
> do well, they perform a valuable service for us all.
>
> Simon, if you're still miffed that I got a bunch, let's take it up in
> .debate...
>
> 1 - I am thinking 2 pounds extra per hopper above and beyond what they
> charged me.
>
> --
> Larry Pieniazek larryp@novera.com http://my.voyager.net/lar
> - - - Web Application Integration! http://www.novera.com
> fund Lugnet(tm): http://www.ebates.com/ ref: lar, 1/2 $$ to lugnet.
>
> NOTE: Soon to be lpieniazek@tsisoft.com :-)
>
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: Blue Hopper Car Mania...
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| Simon said: (...) Thanks for the defense, Frank... My plan is to use these hoppers to accomplish two goals. I will sell enough off to pay for what I bought plus a little extra, but that should leave me with 20-30 to keep easily. I am also giving the (...) (25 years ago, 8-Oct-99, to lugnet.market.shopping, lugnet.trains)
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