Back in ancient Greece, one of the most esteemed politicians, a rhetorician, took the election by promising fairness, those who were on hard times and wanted some changes made voted for him, those who were doing well voted for him, those with grudges voted for him and those who were satisfied voted for him. They all wanted what was fair tho the definition of what was fair differed for each one of them. In my blog predator and prey, I said I would take up the issue of fairness in the future, it being Saint Valentines Day I thought it a good time to revisit fairness. It is a good time to talk about fairness because in my opinion the issue of fairness is summed up in a grand macroview way when looking at Saint Valentine. Saint Valentine was Valentinus, he lived during the Roman Empires days when the church suffered sporadic persecutions, sometimes in favor, sometimes out of favor, besides that the empire was being daily challenged, barbarians would appear ready to enter the prosperity of the empire but unwilling to concede to the empire the sovereign rule that made the prosperity possible, the church would often be looked at as such a foreign invading entity, and its adherents would often be charged with atheism, since they did not believe in the pantheon. The church at the time tho oft suffering persecution itself also drank of the zeitgeist and would also at times persecute those whose theology was not orthodox according to the consensus of the church authorities, some idea of the "diversity" of ideas and ideals can be found in the collection, The Nag Hammadi Library, which was a collection of banned proscribed writings that were hidden away by some desert divine, probably at the rumor of some official embassy that was assuring the compliance of monastic libraries. Valentine is represented in that banned collection, he himself ended up being put to death by some compliant emperor. But his works were all about the superior power of Love, but it can be considered extremely unfair that a man who preached that love was the power over all, that love ruled the world, that love was the supreme attribute of the deity ended by being the victim of official murder. But here it is, February 14th, and sweethearts the world over share sentiments of love, and give gifts of chocolate, flowers, and other desirable things to each other in order to affirm that love is the driving engine of their lives. So back to fairness, it certainly does not seem fair that Valentine died before his time, and that his death was because of his single minded extolling of love in a time of fear hate and suspicion, but Valentine has in that act of unfairness achieved a great fame, his name is attached to acts of love all over the world. So in a way he has been treated fairly over time, had he been ignored, had nobody cared what he said, today might be just another day to lament cabin fever and the long winter. So back to fairness, let us suppose that there is something basically unfair, but to some poor children that idea of fairness is totally subjective, such a view of fairness is that if someone sells them a gold coin that turns out to be a plated piece of lead, that is unfair, if they happen to find someone else to sell it too, then they find that it is fair, so to such a one fairness is something they like or benefits them and unfairness is something that they do not like or does not benefit them. We could dismiss such a view of fairness more easily if in these days it was not so widely held. It is a babies view, the child crying for the bottle, while mom has not eaten, it needs to be mothered because it is infantile, being infantile it either grows or is retarded in its growth, it cannot understand fairness in an objective way. Adult children are prone to this view of fairness, it may work for a while, but it cannot last or bring any lasting benefits, if for instance someone is buying coins for 10% of their wholesale value, they might do well for a while, but the fact is that after a while the people they deal with, will be people who appreciate the no questions asked mode of dealing. Such people will be more prone to not caring so much that the gold that they stole was sold for so little, but they will also be prone to scoping out that fence, (an old term for someone who receives stolen goods), and that person might someday find that those criminals have made him their target, and in a way it is fair that those who have made their money so illicitly will lose it in the same way. So what is fair?The old way of saying it is, do not do to others what you would not like done to yourself. A positive way of stating it is, do to others what you would like done to yourself. In my short time collecting I have found that age is no indicator of someone treating others fairly, I know one in his 60s who has lost his brick and mortar store, whose business has shrunk because he will try to scam anybody or anyone, he does not seem to recognize people, seeing only a fly that has stumbled into his web, I know another in his twenties who is as honest as the day is long, he knows the questions to ask if someone brings in a coin and seems to be trying to just get rid of it, he remembers people and their stories, and he is a person himself not some green blooded insect looking to feast on some poor victim. Fairness makes a difference, the young dealer has seen his business expand, he now has three stores opened, he is becoming prosperous, not by trying to make a mint off anyone he can, but by being honest and forthright and treating his customer the way he would like to be treated. As he and his businesses have grown he has attracted some of the scammers, he has been bitten by a few of them, and the one thing I fear for him is that he will lose the thing that has made him prosperous. It is fair for a dealer to make a decent profit, It is fair for a dealer to use greysheet prices, but also to incorporate his own knowledge, if he does not have a clientele for indian head cents he does not pay greysheet and will let the person know, if he does have clients that are looking for Franklin halves he will pay accordingly because he knows he does not have to keep the item in stock for a long time. Because the definition of fairness is doing unto others what you would like done to you, it is an elastic definition that can stretch to cover many instances and circumstances. Being fair is a great reputation to attain, and those who get that reputation will over the long term do better, even if themselves treated unfairly they still will be esteemed while the unfair will be despised. I still have lots of inbetween areas of what is fair, what is fair on spot prices? Is it fair for a dealer to make 20% 30% , Somethings are better left for peers to judge, not being a dealer with the expenses of a store to run, I do not know if offerring spot prices for an ASE is fair. I suspect that if one dealer is offering 11 times face for junk silver and another is offerring 5 times that the one offerring 5 is not treating me fairly, he may have a ton of reasons for his pricing, but as a collectorI will go to the one offering the higher prices, one would think that if the one is offering 5 times face he could be selling to me below spot but in my experience so far the one offerring 5 times is also selling the coins for more than the one offering 11 times face. Jimmy Carter famously said, "Life is not fair", but that observation tho true does not excuse us. I think as collectors it is our duty to educate ourselves as much as possible and to support the dealers who are fair in their prices and to give dealers who have been what we felt was unfair a chance every once in a while to be fair, but we each have to decide that for ourselves.
