Ignore this
- Thread starter omgodzilla
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Question, what School are you going to? I'm at the University of Guelph, and not only is student resale encouraged, but we have an entire system set up for making arrangements with customers via a website known as The Cannon. (Anyone who has been to the Guelph Campus knows why its called that. Take a guess)omgodzilla said:
So no, what you did was not illegal, you set a price and people paid it. Hand transactions are difficult to track anyways. I just feel sorry for the guys you suckered, because they are going to be kicking themselves when they find out. You're a jerk, yes, but you think like a businessman.
As for your prices.... well, I bought a used book today for twenty bucks off. It still cost me $120. Your prices were steep, but they were in line with the going rates for buying used copies.
If you ask me, the biggest thing here is that you managed to get a hold of so many copies for $40 each. That's incredible. I've never seen the big textbooks go for anything less than $60 (half price for my books)
I'd say so, but at the same time your classmates got the books at a reduced price (if only slightly), so I guess that worked out for everyone. Next time try and be a bit less greedy, though.
Captcha: silver lining. Heh.
Captcha: silver lining. Heh.
I would say you were being a jerk. Textbooks can be expensive, and university students often don't have a lot of extra money to spare. Basically, by cornering the market for textbooks for that class and selling them for way more than you paid for them, you were screwing close to 50 people out of money that could have gone towards something else they needed, or even something they wanted to spend money on if they didn't have to spend it on textbooks. I'm sure a lot of these people could afford it, but I can guarantee that some of them could have really used an extra eighty bucks lying around.
Now, if you were selling them for say, $10 profit a book, this would be an entirely different story. Not only would you still be making a bunch of money (relative to how much time and effort this probably took), but you would actually be helping people by offering a cheaper alternative to the ridiculously overpriced textbook market.
But basically, a good ethical rule of thumb is that if you're making a massive return on a risk-free investment, there most likely is something unethical or illegal about it.
As for the doing anything illegal, I would say probably not. The main thing that you might get in some sort of trouble for is emailing everybody in your class about it, depending on your schools policies and if you were actually using your university email to do it. I know my university has a strict policy about using your school email for for-profit ventures, and I would guess that it is a fairly common policy. Basically, be prepared for some sort of consequence, especially if word gets out about it.
Now, if you were selling them for say, $10 profit a book, this would be an entirely different story. Not only would you still be making a bunch of money (relative to how much time and effort this probably took), but you would actually be helping people by offering a cheaper alternative to the ridiculously overpriced textbook market.
But basically, a good ethical rule of thumb is that if you're making a massive return on a risk-free investment, there most likely is something unethical or illegal about it.
As for the doing anything illegal, I would say probably not. The main thing that you might get in some sort of trouble for is emailing everybody in your class about it, depending on your schools policies and if you were actually using your university email to do it. I know my university has a strict policy about using your school email for for-profit ventures, and I would guess that it is a fairly common policy. Basically, be prepared for some sort of consequence, especially if word gets out about it.
Ripping off your friends at 67% profit margins?
You're kind of running a black market. I would not advise you continue.
You're kind of running a black market. I would not advise you continue.
Absolutely not. The entire world economy revolves around selling something for more than you acquired it for.
As long as you didn't do this to any close friends, I'd say you're entirely in the moral right.
As long as you didn't do this to any close friends, I'd say you're entirely in the moral right.
That was a dick move. It was probably legal, but it was still a dick move, and though it's good for you, it's not good economics, and certainly not good for the people you gouged. That kind of greed is one of the things that leads to depressions when practiced in the world of big business; one group of unscrupulous people finds a way to land a large amount of wealth at the expense of many, and the imbalance of economic assets leads to instability.
In the case of textbooks, this kind of thing is done frequently, but most often by the bookstores themselves. The end result is that the publishers don't get enough royalties from book sales, and in order to stay profitable must raise the price of books. This is why the textbook series I've been contributing to has more than doubled in price over the last ten years, despite the protests of the author.
Your contribution to this mess is a drop in the ocean, but please don't do more than you've already done. We have enough unscrupulous people making things difficult for those who don't need any more trouble than they've already got.
In the case of textbooks, this kind of thing is done frequently, but most often by the bookstores themselves. The end result is that the publishers don't get enough royalties from book sales, and in order to stay profitable must raise the price of books. This is why the textbook series I've been contributing to has more than doubled in price over the last ten years, despite the protests of the author.
Your contribution to this mess is a drop in the ocean, but please don't do more than you've already done. We have enough unscrupulous people making things difficult for those who don't need any more trouble than they've already got.
thisalmostgold said:
if it makes you a dick than almost everyone who sells an item for more money than they comfortably need is a dick
i always have thought the economics of retail are a bit wonky since the seller basically just buys something then passes it over the counter for a huge mark up. i've done a lot of work for repco (large car parts and acc retailer) and i know from my stockholder discount their mark ups are up to 500% but the fact is if someone is willing to pay the price then at the end of the day the price is fair
the only instance where i would consider it price gouging is if you are selling essential goods or services (food, water electricity) and the customer has no alternate means of getting the item
Yeah, it was a little dickish. Nothing wrong with it though. You saw an opportunity to make money and took it. I woulda done the same thing in your position.
You got a fair amount of money from some people who won't be annoyed at you, and probably think you did them a favour.
I guess if you believe in Karma, sure.
But, if you believe in spending and enjoying the money you gained from playing it clever, go enjoy yourself.
I guess if you believe in Karma, sure.
But, if you believe in spending and enjoying the money you gained from playing it clever, go enjoy yourself.
