I thought long and hard before printing this but “publish and be damned”, here goes:
Last week I had a record up for auction on ebay, the eventual winner didn’t end up paying so I informed e bay (as not to incur the sellers fee), No problem, shit happens,move on!
So I decided to re-list the record as a buy it now so no one will end up bidding more than they should and end up having second thoughts, they can just sum up the price and buy it at leisure as it were, if they wish.
Just after listing it I noticed a member on Soul Source (he looks to have made quite a few posts, and asked for quite a few wants) had it down as a want, so I pm’d him.
I was actually at least the second one to contact him as someone had already posted a pm message to him.
After giving him the details (demo) and condition and price he got back to me saying It’s only to play at charity events 3 or 4 times a year in which he receives no money for doing and he doesn’t have “much funds” and that he as already been offered a couple of stock copies but asking could I manourve on price?
I got back to him with a 10% discount but received no answer.
A day later he contacted me on e bay( I actually have another username so he wouldn’t have realised it was me) telling me the same tale and that he’d bid to a certain amount at the time of the first auction but missed out (I looked back at the bidding, he had indeed put a bid in, but for less than he told me he had) and offering to buy it at about 25% less than the buy it now price.
I messaged him back telling him his charity work sounds very commendable and I salute him but this sounds like emotional blackmail, if it’s only to play at charity events 3 or 4 times a year there’s no real need to own a demo (unless it’s for his own satisfaction) and he would be better buying a stock copy (5 to 10 times easier to come across and obviously cheaper) and donate the difference to the charity ?
Or better still grab a download and donate the lot to the charity? (I don’t know the music policy of the said event).
He messaged me back listing all the good causes and the amount he had raised saying no offence, but plenty people where happy to sell him records on the cheap because he raises money for charity with them.
Now am I missing the point here?
Is he putting the onus on me to backhandedly make a donation to the charity?
I know another soul site used to ask for people to donate unwanted records so they could auction them and give the proceeds to charity, great idea, no problems with that whatsoever.
To me though this smacks of him building up his collection on the cheap on the back of his charity fundraising. (If he sells them on in future would it be for the price paid, or a tidy profit say?)
I have in the past myself done charity bike rides and fun runs but I wouldn’t dream of asking for a discount on a bike or a pair of trainers if I was buying them on e bay because of that fact.
The record in question is far from rare and the demo when up for sale struggles to reach three figures!
Apologies in advance if I ‘ve got the wrong end of the stick on this one!
PHEW!