From my perspective, people will sometimes find something valuable at either garage sales or auctions not expecting it to be worth much. Most common example is either a painting, antiques, or a vase.
It’s the sellers job to do research at that point before they sell it. It happens in all hobbies, not just Pokémon.
Imagine if it’s just two regular people who also doesn’t know much about Pokémon, but saw the boxes and maybe they thought “hey I remember I used to play with Pokémon as a kid”. Then decided to buy them not knowing that they were worth much.
Best case scenario, someone had fun reliving their childhood opening a booster box.
The right thing is often the hardest option. I wouldn’t fault anyone for keeping the boxes, nor do I think there’s any obligation to return it. But it’s very clear that the most virtuous option is to not just completely ignore this message. Maybe sending $500 to the seller is a nice compromise.
But yeah, generally speaking you are pretty SOL as the seller here
If I had bought them for $30, one would already be opened as there is no way I don’t take the risk that they’re fake. Once confirmed real, pack art set would be kept sealed then everything else be sold by now so there would be nothing to return.
Technically, it is not the responsibility of the buyer to educate ignorant sellers.
Sellers have to do their homework or if really in doubt (with no past sale reference), price it real high first and wait for offers. If still many buyers want to buy despite high price, it’s not high enough… etc.
Would it be different if it was a fake box sold for 2k at the garage sale and the buyer wanted their money back? Do sellers have the responsibility to educate ignorant buyers?
Here at least it would be different. The rights of withdrawal in this country do extend to private transactions if (and only if) there is something “lacking” with the product. So it’s going to be tedious and messy, but you would probably get some/most of it back if it was fake.
Aw man, it’s the “My father is a wreck and I am beside myself” that gets me, that’s such a tough situation. It’s definitely one thing if all parties are on the same page and under the same understanding, which is why telling the seller the price or talking about it would make the most natural sense – then you can feel good about the wild situation and bargain. But although the full story and context isn’t there, it seems like there was definitely a misunderstanding and it probably shouldn’t have been out for sale if the father knew. Punch in the gut! I could never read that and not return it. It’s not just the seller in the story, but the rightful owner. I really hope they can sort things or something, I feel for anyone in that situation, that’s gotta be tough.
I go to garage sales every week. It’s super fun finding unique items to flip and items for myself. It’s more of a hobby and something fun I do with my brother. I’ve literally gone to thousands of garage sales. Since 2020, everybody has gone completely crazy for pokemon cards. It has died down some but most people who are not at all into this hobby could see that box and buy it without any knowledge except that it’s unique or “possibly” valuable. I see people buying the most random crap at thrift stores and garage sales for way more than they go for retail but they don’t know any better. They’re in the moment and just want it. “I waant thaat” Maybe you’ll get that reference.
I was at a moving sale a year or so ago. Old guy had this back garage that was very large, like a mini warehouse on the back of his property. It’s like 100 degrees F with tons of spider webs. I’m sweating my ass off. I really don’t even want to be here much longer after walking in. I asked for a price on one item and he said, “Put it all together and I’ll give you a deal you cannot refuse.” I’m thinking ummmm okay. I find a large storage tote filled with old silver and gold coins… I kid you not a complete crazy collection of coins. Literally a gold mine. It’s surreal finding this stuff rotting away in this decrepit warehouse. I also find a bunch of other stuff. I make a pile and before I even ask for a price he yells over to me, “$20 for all that you have.” I have a conscious. I need to sleep at night. I don’t need the money or these coins. I tell him about the coins and pop open the top of the tote and show him. He goes, “I didn’t even know I had those in here, I said what I said, $20 for everything.” I don’t think he’s thought of those coins for one second after I left. Crazy.
If I got those boxes I would return them. It would eat me up inside but it’s only if I saw the plea from the family. I likely wouldn’t tell the person selling them of their value because I would be so speculative of their authenticity. Especially for someone like me who has gone to so many garage sales, to see something like that, and being very much into pokemon it would be like I’m winning the lottery. Which is just so unlikely. Like buying a mystery slab from ebay and expecting it to actually have the PSA 10 shadowless zard for $25…
“If you are one of the two gentlemen that bought these items” implies that there could have been two separate sales. If that’s the case then I call BS. There is absolutely no shot in the world that anyone would leave any of these booster boxes behind for someone else to buy.
I feel bad, but not that bad here.
Know the value of what you’re selling.
Don’t sell other people’s stuff without running it by them first.
If someone is overly eager to buy something regardless of the price, be instantly wary.
This is a tough lesson for this person and his dad to learn.
I tutor kids and one story thats in the curriculum for them is a short story about a kid that collects baseball cards. Hes with his parent at a yardsale and finds a rare baseball card used as a bookmark in a book. He asks the old lady running the garage sale how much for it and she says a few bucks or something. He considers it but then tells the lady that the card is actually pretty valuable and worth a few hundred bucks. The old lady is very grateful saying she could use that money and offers him another toy for free as a reward. The kid leaves pretty happy with himself and grateful for his new toy.
In short, you all are kidding yourselves if you think there are 0 moral qualms about buying this 20k product for 30 bucks. There may be situations where it may be morally fine like if the person selling something that they got cheap from the original owner and theyre just flipping it themselves while still ignorant to the true price or some situation like that, but I hear “its the sellers duty to know what they have” as an excuse a lot in situations like these. I’m not gonna say anyones evil for buying this but I dont feel like that is a valid excuse to completely wash away any moral ambiguity in these types of scenarios.
If this was just an average person, 20k to help them pay the bills is likely way more important then me getting something amazing for my collection that I couldn’t otherwise afford.
There are absolutely moral qualms about it. But most people are at least being honest that theyd take the value and run. I expected more people here saying it wouldnt be right or that theyd return it.
Consider the following. You go to a flea market and buy some Team Rocket boxes for $20000, You don’t get the seller’s name or information and have no way to contact them.
When you get home, you realize there is pretty clear evidence that they have been resealed. You decide to open it and they are all filled with Sabrina the Teenage Witch packs. And let’s just say for argument’s sake, it’s not the seller that did the resealing.
You make a post that goes viral everywhere about the story. Should the seller reach out to you and give you a refund?
Is it the seller’s job to educate buyers on what they are buying? Was the seller obligated to inform the buyer on exactly what they were buying or is it ok for them to keep some information hidden? Should the seller feel guilty for this after finding out? Is ripping someone off ok when it’s the buyer losing out on 20k and not the seller?
I’m not interested in legal arguments. Laws will vary depending on where they are. I’m also not interested in whether the original story is true or not, because we can just assume it is for the sake of argument. I’m interested in the ethics. If you can rationalize the seller losing out on 20k because they were ignorant to what they had, surely you can also use the same argument to rationalize that a buyer losing out on $20k is fine if they didn’t do their due diligence.
And I’m not even saying what should be done in the original situation. I am just very unsatisfied with the rationalization provided by most people here.
A lot of people suggest that they would do the right thing (ethically, legally, morally) in a given scenario, but it rarely happens in practice. Most people would take the boxes and run, especially if they are financially unstable.
It’s easy to say what you would do, but your mind may change in the moment if presented with the actual situation. Just the way that the world works.
