Behavior with other collectors
Today I went to the flea market, and apparently 6:00 was too late to get there. If you paid 3 bucks you could get in earlier, and some collector had beaten me. He picked through almost everything and had a huge bag filled with great deals. I got to a booth and saw he was already there, picking through some ps1 games. I was picking up some stuff and he said that those were his, or he was going to buy them but he had momentarily placed them down. They were great games, FF7 black label included, and for a few bucks apiece. Well I was thinking...he has no ownership on anything there until he buys them, and for all I know he hadn't even looked through them yet and was about to do so. I could have just picked them up and bought them, as that would be the fairest thing for me, or as I did I could've just backed off. I don't really know how to react to situations like that where someone else is covering everything. Should I just reach in? He has no ownership to them until he buys them or is holding them at least, anyways. How do you guys behave, and how do you think we should behave towards those kind of people?
Comments
There is no ethics at a yard sale, first come first serve. Unless the item is physically in your hands, then it is up for grabs. I'm not condoning knocking people over to get to the table first or anything like that, but you can't call "dibs" on something that is on the other end of the table, UNLESS the seller told you "Sure, you can have all of my video game stuff for $XXX". Only then would the items already be "sold" even though they weren't in the buyers hands.
Thank god I live in a rural setting so I don't have to deal with stuff like this.
But you have to look at it this way the flea market is kind of a race and competition, so f that, cause as far as you know he didn't even see those games....
next time just say "well your not holding them, and as far as I know you didn't even see them, so im gonna have to take them" and buy them.
Yeah, he probably took you. He shouldn't have set them down. Baser Computers did that to me at a yard sale..(of course everyone has heard the story) It wont happen again though. I chewed this old man out one night at walmart because I was looking for a box of hot wheels (literally held the box in one arm, and was going through it with the other) and he reached in the box and took out the treasure hunt. I literally ripped his ass in the middle of the store. He ended up giving it to me but it was the principle.
Well I was going to say that what I usually do in this sort of situation is the "grab first, ask questions later" technique. Although I have cut down my searches for games over the years, I still search for bargains, although now usually for books. At some of the book sales I go to, the tables are crowded as hell, and everyone is grabbing at everything. At 25 cents a pop, I grab first, and then either sort out my bag of goods before paying, or (what usually happens) find out that I paid a few bucks for some shitty books that I end up chucking. However, if you are going through a box of stuff like smokinjoe24 said, and someone starts grabbing shit from it, then ...well that is a totally different story altogether, though luckily I never experienced it myself.
However, if the guy's holding games or items in his hands, or in his cart or basket or whatever, then you don't take stuff out. That's just common etiquette-- it'd be like taking some other dude's food out of their cart at the grocery store.
But if it's just out there in the open, it's fair game. Next time this happens, if the guy's a jerk, just buy the stuff to piss him off.