POLL: Immoral Purchase?

[eits]

there's a craigslist ad for wwf wrestlemania for nes. you respond to the ad. you go to the guy's house and he hands you the game for $5. it's in-box and in mint condition.

when you ask how it was in such good condition, he says he was doing demolition at an old walmart and someone must have been hiding some stuff in the ceiling tiles to eventually steal them and forgot all about it or got fired or something before they could take the stuff they were planning on stealing. so, it was left up there for years and years.

he decided to take it before tearing down the building. he figured his nephew would want it, since he grew up in the age of nintendo. he didn't. so, he decided to sell it on craigslist.


poll question: in buying the game, did you just commit an immoral or unethical act?

 

[amdhunter]

Maybe.

 

[grrl]

Parody thread?

Edit: Or maybe I should say spinoff thread.

And to answer the question, yes it was at least unethical, you knew it was stolen. The items were not gotten through dumpster diving so they weren't being saved from destruction.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Did your friend purchase the merchandise? No
Did he suspect someone else stole it? Yes
Did he make any attempt to return the merchandise to Walmart? No
Did you know how your friend came into possession of the merchandise? Yes

Seems pretty clear cut to me and, I suspect, anyone with morals.

Repost from other thread.

 

[eits]

Did your friend purchase the merchandise? No
Did he suspect someone else stole it? Yes
Did he make any attempt to return the merchandise to Walmart? No
Did you know how your friend came into possession of the merchandise? Yes

Seems pretty clear cut to me and, I suspect, anyone with morals.

not a friend... just a guy off craigslist.

- no, he didn't make the purchase.
- yeah, he suspected someone was trying to steal it.
- are you serious? why would he try and return that game to walmart? it's a 20-year-old game for a VERY outdated system and shipping would cost more than that game would.
- yeah, he told me how he came into possession of the game... he found it on top of a building that he was paid to destroy. the building, and everything in side of it, was trash... therefore, up for grabs.

 

[Ruptga]

It's no more or less questionable than basically everything on Craigslist.

Technically, he was probably obligated in some way to turn over anything of value to whoever owned the old store. But if he wasn't I see no problem here.

 

[grrl]

- yeah, he told me how he came into possession of the game... he found it on top of a building that he was paid to destroy. the building, and everything in side of it, was trash... therefore, up for grabs.

Okay, if the building had already been gutted by Walmart and they declared all else was to be discarded, then maybe this is more like dumpster diving. (Plus, like you said, this is a 20-year old game.)

 

[lxskllr]

Whatever. It's not like Walmart's gonna get the game back regardless of what you do.

They were remodeling an old pharmacy in town, and one of the workers found a carton of Lucky Strikes stashed under the floorboards. They were from WWII, and were outfitted with their WWII duds. He sold them in a local bar for $5 a pack. I wished I was there. I'd have loved to pickup a pack of them.

 

[waggy]

don't quesiton just buy

 

[eits]

It's no more or less questionable than basically everything on Craigslist.

Technically, he was probably obligated in some way to turn over anything of value to whoever owned the old store. But if he wasn't I see no problem here.

when stores get torn down, everything inside them goes back to the company leasing the building. i'm sure that the building was completely gutted of shelves, clothes racks, merchandise, checkout lanes, carts, everything... everything left over is garbage, which, in this case, became another man's treasure.

 

[Ruptga]

K so you just answered your own question

 

[eits]

K so you just answered your own question

i'm stating my position. it differs greatly from magnus's, who believes me to be an unethical and immoral person because i, in his opinion, knowingly purchased stolen merchandise.

i knowingly bought a game that i do not consider to be stolen.

 

[Ruptga]

Well he's wrong, clearly.

 

[Tristicus]

Dgaf brah.
It's yours. Take that shit and run.

 

[eits]

bah... i just realized that the poll option reads, "it found and rescued before it could be destroyed."

i can't edit it...

it was supposed to read, "it was found and rescued before it could be destroyed."

 

[Mike Gayner]

Receiving stolen property? Yeah I'd consider that unethical.

 

[eits]

Well he's wrong, clearly.

that is our opinion. magnus's opinion is that anyone with a moral compass can clearly see that i'm a terrible person with no ethical or moral fortitude.

this thread was to see if anyone else felt the same way.

 

[vi edit]

Where do you draw the line? In your original post all you said was "employees stash it after inventory and claim it after the UPC is no longer in the system."

You didn't say what.
You didn't say how long it was up there.

For all we knew it was a 42" plasma TV that was up there for a year until the new model came in and the UPC was deleted out.

You would have taken a lot less flack had you provided that information in your first reply.

 

[eits]

Receiving stolen property? Yeah I'd consider that unethical.

lol, i'm so shocked you, of all people, would vote me to be unethical.

 

[Mike Gayner]

lol, i'm so shocked you, of all people, would vote me to be unethical.

Well your job is to fleece stupid people of all their money, so it's not exactly shocking that you have no problem with receiving stolen property.

 

[eits]

Where do you draw the line? In your original post all you said was "employees stash it after inventory and claim it after the UPC is no longer in the system."

You didn't say what.
You didn't say how long it was up there.

For all we knew it was a 42" plasma TV that was up there for a year until the new model came in and the UPC was deleted out.

You would have taken a lot less flack had you provided that information in your first reply.

yeah, you're probably right.

you ever have a moment where you tell someone something and you, for some reason, assume they know what you're talking about and the full story behind it, and they really had no idea? it happens to me sometimes...

 

[mjrpes3]

What's its use to wal*mart 25 years later? They have no use for it if it's returned, because they aren't going to put it back on a shelf or be able to return it to the manufacturer. It's as good as trash to them. So as a pragmatic moralist I don't any problem with claiming it.

 

[vi edit]

you ever have a moment where you tell someone something and you, for some reason, assume they know what you're talking about and the full story behind it, and they really had no idea? it happens to me sometimes...

My wife does that daily.

 

[Ruptga]

Oh I didn't realize this was another case or eits vs atot. Maybe I should change my position

 

[eits]

Well your job is to fleece stupid people of all their money, so it's not exactly shocking that you have no problem with receiving stolen property.

lol