We were offered $50 to allow someone to weigh packs of AFL collector cards (not the newspaper cards) so they could find packets with premium cards and buy just these. Premium cards weigh slightly more than regular cards.
We said no thanks as we felt it would be unfair to our regular customers, the kids who will buy more than a thousand packs over the season. They save to build their collections and hope to get one of the premium cards.
While not one of life’s big ethical dilemmas, it is an interesting question – what price to veer off one’s moral compass.
There will be some who are happy to take the $50 and allow the boxes to be weighed and purchased. It’s a completely personal decision. That said, if we put our customers first then we have to say no to the $50.
Wow – more front than Myer!
First instinct is to say ‘no’. So-called ‘serious’ collectors should, IMHO, have some ethics about them. Get on Ebay or something for them.
Then again, because I wouldn’t be prepared to open daily outers until that day, I’d consider it if the person was willing to pay me $50 each morning day to do that. And only when the putaways were done. If they really want it, then they gotta pay through the nostril. And they can put their daily $50 into either of our donation jars.
That’d fix ’em.
This would be a NO! for us, as the point of collecting these cards is to have the thrill of not knowing. Letting someone take away all the premium cards defeats the purpose of collecting and is unfair for other collecters.
We have a customer collecting the NRL cards and he can tell you how many of each card are in each box, he loves collecting but understands that it is all about chance and strategy, because of this he spends so many $$$ collecting in our store. Giving him the chance to weigh the packs of cards would take away so many of his daily purchases.
Mark, the answer is simple. Have a look at the face of the kids as they rip open a pack of cards in the shop. I sent this bloke or some-one like him on his way several years ago. Whilst we are in business to make money, one should never prostitute ones values. Presumably we have evolved since we lved in trees. Then perhaps not…
It is not all about money sometimes. It is a “NO” for me.
We had the same request and they got a No also.
This has been a regular occurance for us for the last few years and i would hardly class it as a dilemma because there’s only one answer, a big fat NO! We’ve actually been offered $100 for these people to weigh our stock but again we didn’t even have to think about it. I couldn’t in any conscience sell cards who use their pocket money or anyone else for that matter knowing full well there’s no premium cards in the pack.
I’m sure there’s a few out there who would take advantage of the money (as well as their regular customers) but i’ve no doubt at all that the vast majority of newsagents would say no and rightly so.
It is interesting that someone would know this. Either they are a very avid collector or perhaps they have been scamming the system for some time. They may be the ones who infact put them on Ebay and make considerable profit?
We have had similar propositions for instant scratchits. To check the ticket is a winner prior to selling it to them. Those are met with the same response – NO
So not worth the aggro if word got out anyway.