Is it unethical for me to buy something and sell it online for more?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Zoopdedoopdeboo
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
Z

Zoopdedoopdeboo

Guest
Say I went to a dollar store and bought some goods for a dollar a piece, then sold each of them for two dollars a piece on amazon.com or Ebay, is this wrong? I don’t know whether it is okay or not. After all, that is how business works. What if I have old junk in my house that I used and am finished with? Can I sell that junk for more than I bought if for? Thanks for the responses.
 
How do you think the dollar store makes a profit? They buy for less than a dollar, and sell it to you for more than they paid for it.

There’s nothing unethical about selling goods for a profit.
 
Zoopdedoopdeboo said:
Say I went to a dollar store and bought some goods for a dollar a piece, then sold each of them for two dollars a piece on amazon.com or Ebay, is this wrong? I don’t know whether it is okay or not. After all, that is how business works. What if I have old junk in my house that I used and am finished with? Can I sell that junk for more than I bought if for? Thanks for the responses.
Click to expand...
Of course it is ok. Perhaps whoever bought it doesn’t have easy access to it. Due to time constraints, I will spend more than if I had to physically go out and buy it. I place a value on my time!
 
My husband and I sell on ebay. He scrounges around thrift stores and garage sales for used records and CDs.

If I don’t think I can sell an item for at least five times what he paid for it, I don’t even bother putting it up for bid.

What I am providing is a service, and that’s what I charge for. My husband is the one who spends his time (and gas for the car!) going to thrift stores. The buyer pays for an item he may have difficulty finding elsewhere. He also pays for the convenience of having it delivered to his door.

But if you’re considering selling, I highly recommend checking out how an item has done in the past on ebay. Just click on “Completed Items” and see what it’s sold for in the past few weeks.
 
Zoopdedoopdeboo said:
Say I went to a dollar store and bought some goods for a dollar a piece, then sold each of them for two dollars a piece on amazon.com or Ebay, is this wrong? I don’t know whether it is okay or not. After all, that is how business works. What if I have old junk in my house that I used and am finished with? Can I sell that junk for more than I bought if for? Thanks for the responses.
Click to expand...
You just described what I do for a living – I provide unique products to folks at around 45-50% off the national suggested retail price and they re-sell it where ever they want *(including e-bay) *at what ever price they want to charge – the difference is their profit / income.

If that was sinful, I’d be in a lot of trouble and so would hundreds of folks that I distribute to.
 
As long as you have not cheated the person you bought it from or are cheating the people you sell it to there is nothing at all wrong with it.

Good luck!
 
Zoopdedoopdeboo said:
Say I went to a dollar store and bought some goods for a dollar a piece, then sold each of them for two dollars a piece on amazon.com or Ebay, is this wrong? I don’t know whether it is okay or not. After all, that is how business works. What if I have old junk in my house that I used and am finished with? Can I sell that junk for more than I bought if for? Thanks for the responses.
Click to expand...
If you were to make a 100% profit on items purchased at the dollar store…good for you! So long as you’re not misrepresenting anything, charge what the market will bear. If you feel guilty about any of your profits, I’ll be happy to take them off of your hands. 🙂
 
Nothing wrong with it – you’re not forcing anyone to buy from you – the customers choose to buy at the price you’re charging (or whatever they bid it up to).
 
Is it okay for me to sell something for the very most people will pay it for as long as I don’t deceive them? For example, if I were to put a video game on ebay or amazon and charge eighty dollars for it when I payed twenty, would that be wrong?
 
Unless you misrepresent yourself, no, it’s cool.

I buy Xbox 360 Elite’s all the time (they are plentiful here), and sell them on Ebay.

Bidding generally nets me $100 on a $479 dollar system (i.e., they for about $600). Easy way to supplement my income.

I start the bidding at .99 dollars, so what’s the problem?
 
Zoopdedoopdeboo said:
Is it okay for me to sell something for the very most people will pay it for as long as I don’t deceive them? For example, if I were to put a video game on ebay or amazon and charge eighty dollars for it when I payed twenty, would that be wrong?
Click to expand...
I think it would be unlikely you would actually be able to do that unless the game had become some sort of collector’s item.

For example, when I was a kid, I had a lot of comic books. I even had this really cool one that I paid $.05 for that was a collection of stories including one about a high school kid who got bit by a radioactive spider. It was the original “Origin of Spider Man” issue of “Amazing Stories”. I sold it a few years for a 5 figure amount (pristine condition!). Was I gouging or doing something unethical? No. It had become a collector’s item. Other comic books I have or had are worthless. I could try charging the same amount for them, but no one would pay.
 
Remember that there is no such price. Price is whatever somebody is willing to pay for something.

Many years ago, I worked for AT&T. A particular telephone was selling for for $149.95 at the AT&T store. As an employee, I got an employee discount and purchased the telephone for only $124.95 for it :). A couple of weeks later, I saw the EXACT SAME telephone selling at Sears for $99.95 😦

There is no such thing as price. Price is whatever somebody is willing to pay for something.
 
Sir_Knight said:
You just described what I do for a living – I provide unique products to folks at around 45-50% off the national suggested retail price and they re-sell it where ever they want *(including e-bay) *at what ever price they want to charge – the difference is their profit / income.

If that was sinful, I’d be in a lot of trouble and so would hundreds of folks that I distribute to.
Click to expand...
 
Dear Sir Knight,
One of my favorite organizations in the world is the TFP.org. TFP stands for Tradition, Family and Property. These things are given to us by Our God to carry forth our Faith, our Family and our Property. We have the right to all three, as Catholics, as Christians. Tradition was taken away from our Church during the Protestant Revolution. Our Family is being taken away today by the Culture of Death, robbed of many, many millions of little children who could one day become our doctors, nurses and Priests. This under the guise of family planning. And the last is our Property. In Atheistic countries, property is not a given right.
It is one of our Inherent Rights as Americans and should be the right of every human being on this earth, but many are robbed of their ownership rights.

Now in responce to buying and selling, I believe as a Christian as long as we have this right to ownership of property, we also have the right to give it away, keep it or sell it. It is part of everyone’s needs to be able to make a living with our minds and our hands.
Just as long as we’re honest in our dealings, and others are honest with us!

cathgoyo
 
Zoopdedoopdeboo said:
Is it okay for me to sell something for the very most people will pay it for as long as I don’t deceive them? For example, if I were to put a video game on ebay or amazon and charge eighty dollars for it when I payed twenty, would that be wrong?
Click to expand...
A thing is worth what a willing buyer will offer and a willing seller will accept – there is no other way to determine value.

If some offers $80 for it, and you accept it, that’s a fair price – and both buyer and seller agree on it.

As pointed out in another post – as long as you don’t misrepresent the item. If you describe it fairly, you have sold it fairly.
 
**
Is it unethical for me to buy something and sell it online for more?
Click to expand...
No, not in usual day to day affairs, that is normal commerce.

However circumstance must be considered at all times. For instance if a medical ointment I had would assist the member of a poor family, it would be my obligation either to sell it at the price I paid for it, or give it for free.

I think proper mention should be made for the practice of selling overpriced articles to the government. Articles such as bolts purchased from suppliers for 1000$ steal from the poor and can not be excused under the rule of common good. This is clearly the working of the seldom admitted common evil.

The government is obliged as representative to it’s employer the citizen to purchase articles at fair market value just as anyone else, and is the duty of every supplier to sell at fair price. Both sin out of indifference to the fact the poor carries the burden.

AndyF

**
 
No. It’s called an online garage sale.

At garage sales, we sell stuff sometimes that were gifts years ago we paid nothing for - so all the sale price is profit and is ethical and fair to both buyer and seller.

It’s only unethical if you try to sell the dog’s hairbrush and claim it’s the last one used by Brittany before she shaved her head. That would be unethical - but I bet it would sell like crazy!!!
 
What about this concept - what would you want a very close friend or family member of yours too spend? If they were looking to buy it (your product you were selling online that you bought at a dollar store)…would you tell them where to buy it cheaper (the dollar store)?

Would Jesus do it? (buy low and sell high)

Because our society says it is OK - people even make their living at it - does not mean it is right.

I don’t think Jesus would do it.

We made our society as it is. I do not believe God wants us to “do what we have to” - nothing in the Bible that directly says it is wrong I don’t think.

I am not even saying it is wrong. Just offering something to think about.

I think the Bible is full of principles to follow and live our lives by.

Should peolpe/kids in third world countries die of a curable disease because they cannot afford “the going rate”? I think it is the same concept myself.

If you sold it for a “fair” price I think that is fine. Sell it for the most you can get just because - doesn’t sit well with me personally. I agree that is the market - but a man made one. Still you would have the dilema of knowing they could buy it cheaper elsewhere.

I guess this answers it for me…
If Jesus “were buying the item” online and you knew it was Jesus…would you want to tell him about the place that sells it cheaper. If the answer to that is “yes” than I think it is wrong. Why treat anyone differently than you would Jesus?
 
In reading my reply I can see why “Born Again” Christians get labelled as legalistic, judgmental and condesending. Perhaps demanding conduct higher than that of the world is not wrong.

The same reason why Jesus was hated. Not by what he “did”… but by what “he said”… and it made everyone uncomfortable.

That is how I became a Born Again Christian.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top