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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Prime Mover, post: 1777661, member: 38783&quot;]For me all of it boils down to a couple simple rules.&nbsp; &quot;Honor your word&quot; is the most important thing, followed by &quot;do not be deceitful and use it to your advantage against another&quot;.&nbsp; I also believe there&#039;s black, white and grey to ethics, it&#039;s not all cut and dry just like many things in life.&nbsp; I believe ethics is deeply rooted in being all about what you know, and how you use what you know to influence the outcome for favorable gain you otherwise wouldn&#039;t have received.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>An example - I bought an Ike, your standard OGP proof variety a while back for twice what the normal going rate was.&nbsp; Was the seller ethical for making double profit?&nbsp; I don&#039;t see why not as he had it listed for that price, it was represented properly and honestly, and I simply just wanted the coin and was willing to pay more for it.&nbsp; If I wasn&#039;t willing to pay more for it, then I walk away.</p><p>However, if that same coin was advertised as an error, a special variety, or something that would have made it worth that much more, but in reality it wasn&#039;t, then I would have considered it unethical because it was an attempt to receive ill gain by claiming it was something it wasn&#039;t.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>To your questions above:</p><p>1) Ethical to me, as long as there is no misrepresentation of what it is.&nbsp; The market will determine the price and acceptability, and you make what you make.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>2a) Where you choose to sell has no bearing on ethics to start with, unless you enter into an exclusive contract with one and then finalize the deal through another venue.&nbsp; Key word exclusive.&nbsp; There&#039;s nothing wrong with placing a for-sale ad in multiple newspapers, craigslist, etc as long as you respect the rules of the entity you listed with where they buyer found you.</p><p>2b) Wherever there&#039;s negotiation between the buyer and seller, as long as both agree and no other contracts are broken, there&#039;s no breach of ethics.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>3) If a buyer pays more for something because he simply doesn&#039;t know what he&#039;s doing, no ethics breach.&nbsp; If the seller is using deceitful tactics or preying on the buyer because he knows he is not well versed, then breach of ethics.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>4) Complete breach of ethics.&nbsp; You&#039;re using your position or knowledge to swing the balance in your favor so that you end up better off than you would have been on a level playing field.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>5) Grey area and much harder to deal with.&nbsp; I don&#039;t think there&#039;s anyone in the world who doesn&#039;t like a good surprise when they find something they didn&#039;t expect in a good way.&nbsp; I feel that if you find something and cherrypick it without using any tactics to skew the value any further, it&#039;s a case of lack of buyer/seller education.&nbsp; If you specifically try to undermine the price of something even further so you&#039;re sure to twist the sale in your favor, and know that you are taking extreme advantage of the situation, I find that unethical.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>6) Ethics shouldn&#039;t differ from person to person.&nbsp; It&#039;s the same as The Golden Rule, The Moral Compass, etc.&nbsp; It&#039;s about Doing The Right Thing, and most people I believe know the difference between what feels right and what feels wrong, regardless of the letter of the law.&nbsp; I think this delves more into a religious/philosophical belief and debate and I&#039;ll stop here.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>7) Gradeflation is unethical again, if done with the intent to deceive.&nbsp; Grading in and of itself is subjective and opinionated based upon interpretation of certain decided standards.&nbsp; A point here or there is more determined by human judgement or error and I believe well within the lines of an honest mistake with no intent and ethical.&nbsp; Severe under/over grading done on purpose to take advantage of another&#039;s lack of knowledge and enhance profit in the seller&#039;s favor is unethical.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>8) Coins are a bad investment, since their value is vacuous.&nbsp; There is no solid entity providing a foundation for value and growth of the product, it&#039;s based on what people think it&#039;s worth given certain factors, there&#039;s no real cost basis to determine true value.&nbsp; A V nickel is worth 5 cents at the core.&nbsp; Certain humans have said that certain ones, because of certain factors, are worth more, and those who choose to believe that will make it worth that buy buying and selling at that level.&nbsp; Without those driving factors and those who believe in them, it&#039;s worth 5 cents.&nbsp; Those who truly believe the values will continue to be like that because of their love of the hobby, will claim they are good investments, and there&#039;s no issue with ethics there.&nbsp; Those who twist this love of the hobby to prey on the uneducated/weaker mindsets of others, and use it to enhance their financial gain or position, are unethical.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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