Money Moral Dilemma: Is it OK to sell items from pound shops online for a profit?

SadieO

psm2day said:

People are lazy and can't be bothered to search for a product themselves to see if its cheaper elsewhere, there's a presumption that the likes of ebay and amazon are the cheapest places to buy from.

I found this out about 15 years ago, I listed a few engineering books for lathes on ebay that I had read and didn't need anymore so I thought instead of just putting them in the loft I would see if I could get a few quid for them.

It was my first experience of selling on ebay and I was shocked to see books I had bought for less than £10 were attracting bids of £40+, a couple sold for £50, I thought it was some scam but the buyers paid up, left me good feedback and I even had people who were outbid asking me if I had more, well thought why not, I promptly bought more from the same website I had before and continued to sell these books for a hell of a lot more than what I paid for them, this went on for many months but I felt really guilty about it and in the end I started purchasing the books with many more titles from the publishers and sold them at the RRP for a few years.

Had any of my purchasers bothered to just put the books titles into Google (or whatever the search engines were back then) then the first search result was the website I was getting them from, so proving people are lazy.

I've absolutely been guilty of such "laziness". I'm too much of a money-saver to pay too much over the odds and will always shop around. But sometimes if I see something at a slightly higher price on a website I already trust, have an account with etc, I might get it from there for the convenience of not having to set up an account with a site I haven't used before. Or for the ability to have it delivered, if it is something that I can freely get in a bricks and mortar shop/supermarket but I can't, for whatever reason, get there physically or don't want to make a special trip out. 

hysbysiad

I think this is wrong because we dont see or know who is buying and their circumstances financially. Out of work, in debt and possibly even homeless? I personally couldnt spend from profit of something like this after finding out any of my buyers were in one of those situations. I know its not exactly the same situation but say you had a friend who you found out went unemployed recently could you sell to them at marked up prices like this? I believe its wrong to take advantage of people at times of hardship. These are the times now

soolin

hysbysiad said:

I think this is wrong because we dont see or know who is buying and their circumstances financially. Out of work, in debt and possibly even homeless? I personally couldnt spend from profit of something like this after finding out any of my buyers were in one of those situations. I know it’s not exactly the same situation but say you had a friend who you found out went unemployed recently could you sell to them at marked up prices like this? I believe it’s wrong to take advantage of people at times of hardship. These are the times now

I find it hard to imagine a scenario where a buyer is in dire need of something from Poundland and neither can I think of a scenario where a seller needs to enquire about the financial status of a buyer to decide what to sell an item for.  

I would ask what you think might happen if say a supermarket had to sell food at cost, or at least means test shoppers before they set a price ? Can you imagine that supermarket staying in business for very long?

hysbysiad

soolin said:

hysbysiad said:

I think this is wrong because we dont see or know who is buying and their circumstances financially. Out of work, in debt and possibly even homeless? I personally couldnt spend from profit of something like this after finding out any of my buyers were in one of those situations. I know it’s not exactly the same situation but say you had a friend who you found out went unemployed recently could you sell to them at marked up prices like this? I believe it’s wrong to take advantage of people at times of hardship. These are the times now

I find it hard to imagine a scenario where a buyer is in dire need of something from Poundland and neither can I think of a scenario where a seller needs to enquire about the financial status of a buyer to decide what to sell an item for.  

I would ask what you think might happen if say a supermarket had to sell food at cost, or at least means test shoppers before they set a price ? Can you imagine that supermarket staying in business for very long?

I believe its wrong to take advantage of people at times of hardship. You may not but people need to see the truth in things sometimes and realise more lose than the few that win. Its not reasonable. Supermarkets will always win

Spoonie_Turtle

hysbysiad said:

soolin said:

hysbysiad said:

I think this is wrong because we dont see or know who is buying and their circumstances financially. Out of work, in debt and possibly even homeless? I personally couldnt spend from profit of something like this after finding out any of my buyers were in one of those situations. I know it’s not exactly the same situation but say you had a friend who you found out went unemployed recently could you sell to them at marked up prices like this? I believe it’s wrong to take advantage of people at times of hardship. These are the times now

I find it hard to imagine a scenario where a buyer is in dire need of something from Poundland and neither can I think of a scenario where a seller needs to enquire about the financial status of a buyer to decide what to sell an item for.  

I would ask what you think might happen if say a supermarket had to sell food at cost, or at least means test shoppers before they set a price ? Can you imagine that supermarket staying in business for very long?

I believe its wrong to take advantage of people at times of hardship. You may not but people need to see the truth in things sometimes and realise more lose than the few that win. Its not reasonable. Supermarkets will always win

How are they taking advantage of people who are choosing to shop on eBay instead of going to the Pound shops (or having someone go to on their behalf)?

pulliptears

hysbysiad said:

I think this is wrong because we dont see or know who is buying and their circumstances financially. Out of work, in debt and possibly even homeless? I personally couldnt spend from profit of something like this after finding out any of my buyers were in one of those situations. I know its not exactly the same situation but say you had a friend who you found out went unemployed recently could you sell to them at marked up prices like this? I believe its wrong to take advantage of people at times of hardship. These are the times now

I am responsible for my own finances, not someone elses.  Harsh as that seems.

hysbysiad

Because they could very likely be taking advantage of people who are on lower incomes who could have bought 90% cheaper. Even if these times werent hard id think its wrong. Il agree to disagree with anyone

hysbysiad

Why dont the rich get poor and why do the poor keep getting poorer? because of attitudes like this and because of greed. We cant take greed with us to the grave neither our earning stops then

Spoonie_Turtle

hysbysiad said:

Because they could very likely be taking advantage of people who are on lower incomes who could have bought 90% cheaper. Even if these times werent hard id think its wrong. Il agree to disagree with anyone

How are they taking advantage of them?  You haven't explained.

CurlySue2017

keithyno.1 said:

CurlySue2017 said:

I hope this Moneysaver has declared all of those earnings to the tax man?

Buying items specifically to sell on is not the same as selling your old used goods

The tax affairs of the poster are a matter purely between them and HMRC and nothing to do with you or any of the rest of us.

Personally I'm rather more concerned that Amazon escape with paying an inconsequential amount of tax in this country in spite of the hundreds of millions £ worth of business they conduct within these shores. 

So you say this:

"The tax affairs of the poster are a matter purely between them and HMRC and nothing to do with you or any of the rest of us"

Followed by this:

"Personally I'm rather more concerned that Amazon escape with paying an inconsequential amount of tax in this country in spite of the hundreds of millions £ worth of business they conduct within these shores"

A bit contradictory, no??

It's a public forum and they asked for peoples opinions - that makes it everyones business!