"Free" items for sale

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Brumfondl

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#2248132 30-May-2019 07:18

muppet:

If I ever receive anything "free" like this, I set fire to it and bury the remains in the backyard. Free things like this are always Government spying devices that will listen in to everything you say and do and report them back to the IRD for tax purposes.

This is factually incorrect. Those spying devices are always in things people pay for, not fre things. People are far more likely to kep the things they pay for and so the spying is far more successful... :D

nitro

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#2248242 30-May-2019 10:06

nunz:

A product is worth what someone will pay for it - as long as there is no serious power imbalance. Drugs companys charging hundreds for pills that cost cents is unethical - when you consider their profit lines. Apple ditto.

you forget that those drug companies would have spent millions developing, testing and licensing those drugs... way before they consider mass producing them.

for every drug that they can actually sell, there would be a few that don't make the cut... the development cost for those "failed projects" need to be paid for.

i work in product development, very similar, if not the exact same thing... before we can sell a single device for, say $5000, there would have been millions in engineering cost... then you would have to set up manufacturing. this is not to mention the products that didn't get to market, or was not successful. it's just the way it is.

for me, personally, on trademe... any item i'm interested in, i put a ceiling price on... that's how much i'm willing to pay for it... if the bidding goes beyond that, i'm out. it isn't a drug that my life depends on.

kobiak

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#2248317 30-May-2019 10:59

I have no problem with people selling freebies they got as a deal, but what I fail to understand: they sell at retail price or just a bit under. They also don't do online price check, believing that if freebie is valued at X they should ask for X - small %.

eg. google home hubs as recent freebie deal by major NZ retailers. people are selling these for $200-250 because RRP is $299. But first page google results shows: I got it new shipped for $180. *facepalm*

helping others at evgenyk.nz

elpenguino

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#2248706 30-May-2019 19:54

Geektastic:

elpenguino:

Geektastic:

There is no such thing as being greedy. The market requires a willing seller and a willing buyer. If you put B up for sale at $500 and someone is happy to pay you for what is your property, then that is absolutely fine.

Economics doesn't exist in a ethics-less vacuum though. There once was a guy who had a hot product and thought he should charge much more for it.

Meet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Shkreli

He's currently serving time and you could argue it's because he was greedy.

Of course it does. Economics is economics. Not ethics. Ethics is a human overlay which some people subscribe to more than others. Unless your economic activity is actually against a law, ethics pertain solely to people individually. Person B may think selling it for $500 is unethical, Person C may not and Person D just won't care one way or the other.

Economics, however, certainly does not care. If you plot supply and demand on a graph, there isn't an ethics axis.

There's no ethics axis because 2 elements in a complex system have been removed from the system to demonstrate some kind of relationship.

Saying there's no ethics involved in economics ignores the very point of the economy and money in the first place, which is to facilitate trade between humans.

Removal of the human factor (and others like the environment) from discussion about the economy is very helpful to those who are engaged in activity that's harmful.

Hey look !! I'm making MONEY !!! Too bad your planet's focked / your citizens can't feed themselves etc.

Interesting discussion but waaaay OT - I'm sure OP can sell his item for a fair price and sleep at night.

Most of the posters in this thread are just like chimpanzees on MDMA, full of feelings of bonhomie, joy, and optimism. Fred99 8/4/21

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