How do you react?

Ben Franklin wrote in PoorRichards Almanack, that if you take care of your pennies you will also have dollars to take care of. If a person can be trusted in small things they more than likely will be trusted in larger things.

It is easy to despise small things, as some of the other posters have pointed out, small things are, well, small.

The story is told where Abe Lincoln once walked miles to give a customer the few cents he had inadvertantly overcharged when he worked at a store early in his career.

It is part of our american heritage to be scrupulous, possibly to a fault, since any virtue taken to an extreme can become a vice.

I think it is a healthy sign when a person gives some thought about what is right or wrong, even when it comes to relatively small purchases.

 

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I went to an brand new restaurant this past Friday evening. This place is run by a local business owner / restaurateur with just a two small neighborhood eateries. This is a new location, new staff, new menu, new procedures... Place was packed, everything from food to service to ambiance was spot on. Between myself and another person we had a very nice meal and four drinks. When the check came I noticed we were only charged for 2 not 4 drinks. I waved to the owner, he came immediately, I pointed out the descrepancy, he thanked us for our honesty and comped the 2 unaccounted for drinks. Despite this I would certainly have returned, but I clearly thanked him and indicated we would be returning. In the confusion of the new business, a small error by our server(s) happened. It was to our benefit and not only in the free beverages but to the owners excellent customer service abilities to handle the issue swiftly, helping us get out sooner, freeing a table in his establishment and accommodating more customers after us. I will point out that getting free drinks in a restaurant in NYC is darned near unheard of because that's where they make all their profit from, usually. I will also say that we didn't 'take advantage' of this gesture, and left a more than generous tip to the hard working, albeit new and a little overwhelmed staff.

Honesty does go a long way and presents its own rewards yet I saw nothing dishonest about the OPs auction dilemma.

 

This has more to do with buyer ignorance. Their inability to research the item before bidding on it.

 

And to at least one other bidder they were worth one bid increment less, or your buyer wouldn't have been pushed that far. \\

 

Me and my father in law went to a baseball card show in Chicago because Bobby Hull was going to be there and my father in law wanted his autograph. People charge for their autographs at these shows. Mr. Hull was supposed to show up, but after waiting an hour, we left. As we were leaving, we saw Bobby in the hallway. My father in law got his autograph there. After walking blocks and blocks we got to the car. My father in law felt so bad that he didn't pay for his autograph, that we walked all the way back to give Bobby Hull the money for his autograph.

 

That's nice that your FIL went back to pay for the autograph; however, placing an item on an auction block is quite different. You can't really control the bidding on eBay when you're the seller.

Take a look at what an 1885-O Morgan went for, and the bidding started at $.99. One of my dealers has an 1885-O in an NGC slab for $70.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370412598070&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT

Look at the bidding history for that auction.

The second bidder made a reasonable, slightly high, bid of $77.77. The 3rd bidder tossed $100 on top of that. The coin finally sold for $810 + $14.50 postage.

 

Ebay can be like any other auction you get 2 or more bidders fixated on a single item and it can go through the roof regardless of what the actual value is. Now there is no moral dilema it is the bidders who have driven up the price and not the vendor (this assumes there was no shill bidding of course)

 

There are times where buyer's bidding techniques backfire, especially if you get two bidders using the same technique which then results in stupid prices being paid for mediocre items. It hasn't happened with my coin auctions but one time I was selling toy guns (Roy Rogers, I believe) and they should have only gone for $40 -$50. However, they went for $910. When the winner emailed me, he explained that he always put in a proxy bid of $1000 to guarantee that he won the auctions. It just so happened that the under-bidder did the same with a proxy bid of $900. He never expected for that to happen but he honored the contract and made payment.

His attitude was "you win some, you lose some."

Did I feel guilty about taking his money? Not at all. An auction is where the highest bidder wins and he was the highest bidder. He took his chances and it didn't work that time.

 

I stopped going to live auctions because of this very same thing. People bid the heck of out things and seriously over pay for items.

 

Last month, I bought at the Goodwill, a bag of over fifty Star Wars action figures for fifteen bucks. I'm selling them on ebay in lots of five, and made over 100 bucks so far, and I still have more.

 

Wow...that's a lot of profit...sounds like you have "quite a dilema there" lol

 

These Star War collectors are nuts. I sell them as is, but people keep contacting me questions like what the color of the Ewok's arrow quiver is, or does Bobba Fett have a black gun or a blue gun. These guys are sticklers, but they want their toys.

 

I'd say us coin and currency guy's are about the same...I mean step back and look at a Type 1 vs Type 2 or a FB vs Non FB, or a FS vs None FS...pretty close to the same just not the same items

 

It's just a matter of context:

"These COIN collectors are nuts. I sell them as is, but people keep contacting me questions like what the color of the toning is, or does the note have dark green or light green ink. These guys are sticklers, but they want their COINS.[/QUOTE]"

It's just like any other hobby. Collectors are passionate, discerning, allowed to be irrational if it suits their commitment to acquiring relevant objects and cannot be thought any different be they collect toys, coins, furniture, hats, insects, cars...

 

I thought it was, low bid gets the contract.

Actually it is more likely to happen in a NON-Live auction where bidders submit proxy bids. In a live auction the bidders have to make the conscience decision to raise the bid. With proxy bidding it is automatic and you don't have the opportunity to change your mind. (This is why no auction house or honorable agent will accept a BUY bid anymore.)

Is the point of the leaf under the upright of the D or under the center of the letter?