Is it ethical to buy cheap items only to resell them online for a higher price?
I think this could be a great way to earn a little extra cash, but something is stopping me. What do you think?
Yes it's ethical as long as the price you are asking is a fair price and the product isn't just junk. That is the way stores make their money by marking up prices.
Now if it is cheap junk, that is worthless. That is a different story.
As long as your buying the items and reselling, I wouldn't see a problem in it. That's just good business!
Of course it is ethical. I buy low and sell high all the time. In fact picking from thrift stores and yard sales with the intention of reselling on ebay is very profitable.
The unethical part would be misrepresenting your item in order to make a larger profit or entice more buyers. Be honest with the people you are buying from as well as the people you are selling to and you have no problem at all.
And remember... an item is worth exactly what someone will pay for it. Even if you think the item is only worth $10 but bidding goes up to $100, than that item is worth $100 to that particular buyer.
YES!! That is how ALL businesses operate. They buy items at a "wholesale" price (discounted) and sell at a "retail" price which is what you have to pay when you take it off the shelf. That's how profit is made in brick-and-mortar stores. Online selling is the same except you don't have huge overhead costs (rent, employees, etc.) to cover. This gives you an advantage of being able to keep prices reasonable and garner more customers and repeat business.
Working from home is the direction that the job trends are going in and is growing popularity with families that don't want to have both parents working out of the house while strangers raise their kids. It's also a bonus cuz you set your own hours and are not limited by your location. Smart you :-)
Just remember: Be fair, treat your customers right and make a good name for yourself.
There is nothing unethical about it. I have been in the business for several years of buying low to sell higher so I can make some money. As long as I offer a product to you at a fair price, it doesn't matter what I paid for it, or if I got it for free. I am in the business to earn money and that is just the way the business works. Good luck to you and have fun doing it.
Yes that is retail business in a nutshell. Everything we buy in a retail store was purchased by the business at a lower price. As long as you are fair, and not trying to deceive anyone, it is okay. Like you, I have a problem with it as well, always have but if it didn't work like that--no one could stay in business.
Yes, it is ethical. It is how businesses are run, you buy a product and resell it for a fair market value, even if you lucked up and found the product well below wholesale or even got it free.
I personally think it is a fine idea, I see no ethical problem there at all. Your effort in finding the products and placing them in places where customers seek them is in itself a talent. Effort and talent both deserve and should demand some reward. I say go for it and good luck to you.
by junko 9 years ago
I remember when I was growing up in a community where there were small community supermarkets and appliance stores all around the town. There were Drug stores and hardware stores, bakeries, and fish markets in walking distance all over town. Walmart drove almost all of those small business...
by Mary Wickison 10 years ago
Is there something that you consider a bargain where you live?What can you buy or get that you consider a bargain because of where you live? For example, here in Brazil I can buy fillet steak for R$15. a kilo. That equates to roughly $4.00 a pound.Can you buy seafood, strawberries, pick...
by ngureco 12 years ago
What Do People Buy Online? What Are The Items People Buy Most When Shopping Online?
by Scott Belford 10 years ago
This was a conversation that started when talking about expanded Medicaid, but a CNN article prompted me to bring it up here. New Jersey is enforcing a ban on the high-end electric car manufacturer Tesla, in the case, from "direct sales" to New Jersey customers. Instead, they...
by Suzanne Levac 13 years ago
I just heard that it is very probable that the gas will go up to $5.00 a gallon in the near...future in the United States; do you think it will happen? And why is it going up that much?
by Glenn Stok 9 years ago
I noticed the last few days that Amazon capsules with Kindle books are displaying the following error..."Amazon is not providing us a price for this item. Therefore it can not be displayed."...but when I go to Amazon's sales page it has the price listed just fine. So for some reason it's...
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |