Ok, which one of you did this?

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Rooski

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I've never seen this happen, before. I've always figured scrounging craigslist was all about finding deals, on stuff, and not to inform sellers that they are asking too little!

I woke up this morning and found a local ad for either a 00 or 01 Taiwan Schwinn Cruiser Deluxe 7 for $195. The ad was posted yesterday, so I figured it would be gone, but I left message to get in the que, anyways.

Well, about 30 minutes after leaving message, I checked the ad to find out it had been updated with the added text of:

"To all of you that called or emailed yesterday, I apologize, one person emailed me to inform me that the used Red, Black and Chrome model sells for $400 to $500. thus the price adjustment".

And the price was jacked up to $395! This is certainly a new one on me. :eek:

Here's the ad: http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/bik/1819487342.html
 
I believe the two ethical questions that arise from this situation are:

What are the ethical issues and implications of offering knowledge to someone that you believe is not in possession of “the facts” as you perceive them?

And…

Are there ethical tenets that universally describe the appropriate behavior of a seller who has publicly offered an item for sale at a price and then comes to realize that price is below market value for the item?

The first question may have a variety of ethically/morally based answers dependant on the actual situational conditions, the relationship of the informant to the seller, and of course the perspective of the moralist.

Answering the second question hinges on the subtext of the implied conditions of sale of the venue used and the sellers concept of living up to or “being” their word.
 
The annoying part about this is that there is a 90% chance the the person who informed the seller about the "true value" of the bike would have probably purchased the bike at the lower price if they could have, but chances are they decided to spoil it for everyone else since they were unable to get there in time.

Happened to me once or twice before around here. :roll:
 
It is all part of the game that has no rules.

Rules to help you succeed
  • Buy Low, Sell High
    Cash is King
    most important- You can never be to fast.
 
Rat Rod said:
The annoying part about this is that there is a 90% chance the the person who informed the seller about the "true value" of the bike would have probably purchased the bike at the lower price if they could have, but chances are they decided to spoil it for everyone else since they were unable to get there in time.

Happened to me once or twice before around here. :roll:
Click to expand...

I agree with you and the 90% likelyhood of that scenario, human behavior is often not based in altruism, but another part of human behavior is to make assumptions about events we are not privy to and then believe we have pegged the reasons for the outcome and take an emotional set on them. The good part of this behavior is that it is rooted in our survival instincts and can literally save us in some situations. The down side is that it can lead to uncharitable thoughts, words and actions.

It is possible that the "value informant" was either a knowledgeable close friend, an unknown altruistic Robin Hood interloper, or a bitter also-ran. each of these or other possible scenarios presents it's own set of ethical issues.

Regarding raising the sale price based on information that came after the posting of the item; it is a clearer case of the seller not valuing his word as much as the potential increased profit. To judge his action we have to compare it to how we perceive we would act in the same situation but with the understanding that the sellers reasons for desiring the additional funds are his alone and can't easily be translated to our own interpretation.
 
Phil, You are taking me back to my College Ethics class. Lots of fun debating though I do not remember it all. The ironic thing is my instructor was on the Vegas blacklist at one time.
 
To top it all off, the original price seems to be top dollar to begin with. Nothing wrong with those bikes, but $400.oo is "get something as nice brand new at the lbs" territory.
 

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