The last two articles I've written here have sparked an intense debate on ethics and rip-offs. Many of my readers asked me to delve into my personal ethics, which I declined to do since I wanted to keep the discussion somewhat objective. This week, I'd like to venture down that path by use of case studies. As a store owner and a longtime member of the Magic community, I see an awful lot of transactions occur. Here are some that are fictional, modified, or actually observed. Any names used are fictional, and details may be fabricated or modified for argument's sake. Regardless, many of these transactions occur regularly in some form or another.

I'm going to explain each case study and make my judgment at the end. I'd suggest forming an opinion before you read my thoughts, and leave a comment with them below.

1) The Dealer Dance

Mark is a guy in his mid 20s. He has a decent retail job that pays his rent and puts food on the table. Mark also loves to play Magic, but finds that he can't really afford to buy the best Standard decks to compete at the level he wishes. He is a smart guy, and realizes that so many people value Magic cards differently, and sets out to trade with this in mind. Mark does not rent a storefront, sell cards online, or have a huge stock of Magic cards. If you traded with him, he'd appear to be a typical Magic player.

You decide to trade with Mark at Friday Night Magic, and you ask him what he values your stuff at. He quotes your cards at a price that you'd expect to hear from a dealer, roughly 40-60% of "retail". Put off, you ask what he values his cards at. He quotes you full retail price. You're clearly annoyed, but he has the cards you need and round 1 is starting in 5 minutes. Begrudgingly, you accept the trade, thankful that you at least got the cards to finish your deck.

Did Mark rip you off? Did Mark provide any value to you in this transaction? Does your acceptance of the trade validate his actions?

1a) The Dealer Dance, Redux

Take the above scenario, and instead of Mark having a normal or slightly sparse binder, he presents a well-organized and very complete collection of Standard cards, with access to just about anything you need. How does this change your opinion and your answers of the above questions?

2) I'm Twelve Years Old, and What is This?

You're at your local FNM again, and you observe a player you've never met before trading with one of the younger children that frequently attend this shop. You observe the kid pull his Jace, The Mind Sculptor out of his binder and place it on the table across from about $40 worth of cards; clearly an unfair trade for the little guy.

Do you intervene? Why, and if so, what do you say and to whom?

Do your answers change if the kid with the Jace is instead a guy in his 20's? A woman? An older man? Why?

3) The Distracted Dealer

Now put yourself in a dealer's shoes. You run a local game store that deals heavily in Magic singles. They represent a large portion of your business. Since the margins on sealed product are poor when selling by the box or larger quantities, and few players buy packs, you rely on singles sales to keep the lights on. As such, you often buy cards from customers and resell them, either in the store, on the internet, or to other dealers. Your customers understand this and they value that you provide a safe, friendly place to play cards as well as providing them with a complete selection of singles.

During a particularly busy day, a customer comes in with a large stack of old cards, some of which you don't really know the values of. Since you're a dealer, you usually have a good sense of the price, but in this case, there are a few cards you are unsure of. You price it out his cards, he happily accepts your price, and the transaction is completed. Later that night, when you're sorting inventory, you discover that you unintentionally but severely under-priced a handful of rather pricey cards. What do you do?

Does the customer's loyalty or lack thereof change your opinion? How about the value of the card or the disparity?

4) The Double Dealer

You're the same dealer, but in a new scenario. Someone comes to you with a few cards that you don't anticipate will sell quickly in your store (something old, or rare). You make an offer to the player that is about 15% lower than the buy list of a major online dealer, saying "This will not sell well in my store, and I will have to resort to selling this online if I'm to make any money on this." The customer says, "That's about the price I was looking for on those, let's do it". You then turn around and mail the aforementioned cards to another dealer for a small but appreciable profit.

Have you ripped off your customer? Have you lied to your customer? Is this ethical behavior? Is it defensible in any way?

5) What I Can and Cannot Do

Here's an easy one. Billy and Steve are trading cards, and Billy says to Steve, "I can trade for your card at $X." Steve replies, truthfully, with "But that card is going for $1.5X on [Major Dealer Website]". Billy holds firm, saying "I believe you! But I still cannot give you more than maybe $1.1X for that card."

Is Billy being a rip-off artist? Is Steve being unreasonable? Is Steve foolish for making, or not making, this trade?

Same scenario now, except that when Steve quotes the dealer price, he references a dealer that is known for high prices and infrequent price updates. He knowingly quotes a truthful, but inaccurate price in an attempt to get more value out of his card. Is this ethical?

6) Ignorance is Not Always Bliss

Someone who is seemingly new to the game is working on their deck, and is trading with you to finish out their 75. Magic 2010 is about to rotate out of Standard in a few short weeks, yet your trading partner is absolutely dying to get four copies of Earthquake from you. Earthquake will shortly be illegal in his Standard deck, but he is either unaware or does not care; you're not sure. Regardless, for fear of losing the "sale", you stay mum and make an otherwise fair trade.

Do you have an obligation to tell this person what they're doing? Are you justified in remaining silent? What if the player has been playing for a few years? Does that change anything?

7) Trading at the Shop

You're trading with someone who you see around the shop often, and you pull out a card from his binder and ask the customary "how much?" He quotes you a price that is too low. Which of the following facts matter, and why?

7a) The card just recently shot up in price due to its inclusion in a successful deck.

7b) The player is experienced and often makes balanced, fair trades.

7c) He values the other cards in the trade normally.

7d) You once saw him rip off a little kid in a trade.

What other facts are material to the ethical debate of this particular scenario?

My Views

Context is, of course, everything. In the scenarios where I am a dealer, I will answer from my experience as a small local store owner. When a player's perspective is called-for, I will harken back to my time before I owned a shop.

1) Mark did not rip anyone off. He was forward about what he valued each card at, and did not mis-represent the "market" value of any card to me. His cards are his cards, and he can ask whatever price he wishes, especially if I need the cards immediately before an event. Though I will be wary of trading with him in the future, especially right before a tournament, my reaction is similar to when I buy a coffee in an airport. The price isn't great, but it's their coffee and I'm under no obligation to buy it. My acceptance of the trade de facto justifies his actions; he set his prices at an inflated level due to short-term demand and did not lose a sale because of his inflated prices. Again, though he may have hurt future trade prospects with me, I only feel slightly taken advantage-of.

1a) In this situation, Mark's financial situation or "stock level" is of no importance to me. It is not my place to decide who is a "dealer" "trader" "casual trader" or otherwise. If I do not like his prices, I do not have to accept his deals.

2) Though this is personal preference, I would intervene. I consider myself an ambassador of the game, and would encourage every Magic player to take the same stance. You risk angering the person under-valuing Jace, but I believe you owe it to the kid to inform him. Chances are, the guy trying to scum a cheap Jace will recover from the lost trade. The kid, upon finding out that he just got jacked for the most expensive card in Standard, will likely be put off Magic, which is not an acceptable outcome for me. I am less forgiving as the person becomes older and more serious about the game, since I believe after a certain age, you are mature enough to understand how a secondary market works. I am more concerned with the tenure of the player than their age or gender, so if I believe the player is being taken advantage-of, I will intervene politely. I don't really care if I piss off the guy trying to rip off the little kid, not in the least.

3) I hate to say it, but I took this one from my own experience. There have been a few times where I didn't realize an old card had gone up in price and I unintentionally screwed over a customer. The answer is simple if you don't have the customer's contact information, but when you know the customer well or they are loyal, you must consider being fair. On one hand, your customer clearly had no idea what the card was worth or didn't care.

Here's the problem. If the customer doesn't know, you are showing them that you're ignorant, which can hurt your reputation as a credible shopkeeper. I believe in honesty above all in business, but when you risk your reputation by being honest about making an honest mistake, you must at least take pause and question your policy. In this particular case, the customer had requested store credit as consideration, so when he wasn't looking, I just bumped up his credit by a few bucks. He was none the wiser and my reputation remained intact with that customer. Is this ideal? Not at all! But I made a mistake and rather than shouting my error from the rooftops, I quietly corrected my mistake and everyone remained happy and honorable! It's my job to be accurate, and in this case, I failed but corrected the error without any issue.

4) This is a tricky one for me, since I am a firm believer that people need to understand the value of their cards. As I said before, I'm also a big believer in honesty. The problem with how i constructed the scenario? I'm not being dishonest, but I'm definitely being a bit immoral. When I say I am going to have to sell it online, there's an implication that I'm going to put it on my online store, MOTL, or ebay. Most customers don't really consider that I would just flip it to an online dealer. If they did, they would do so themselves. Some understand this process and prefer to just come in to the store instead of selling it online. This behavior is defensible in my opinion, because you are not actually being dishonest in any way. You are not under oath to disclose all the information you know (eg Dealer A's buy price), but on the other hand, your customer clearly doesn't know that they could get a better deal elsewhere. I'd suggest staying away from this practice, because although it's profitable, it can really blow a good reputation and it's just not a fair way to treat customers.

5) This harkens back to the first question, but in a different kind of scenario. I stand by the fact that a player is entitled to ask what they wish for their cards. Billy can value the card at X and Steve at 1.5X, and neither is under obligation to make a trade. Too many people will come down hard on poor Billy, saying that he has no right to value other people's cards that way. The bottom line is that if he's not losing trades, he's doing a good job of negotiation. He's not lying, nor is Steve and although they may not come to a deal, both are acting in their best interests and honorably. When Steve quotes the out-of-date dealer price, I would say he is being marginally dishonest by knowingly using an inaccurate point of reference. At this point, it's on his trading partner to be better-informed, though I still do not approve of Steve's actions.

6) This happened to me as a dealer. A player wanted some Hell's Thunders, as it were, for his Red Deck Wins. I immediately informed him they weren't long for Standard. He wasn't happy, but he bought them anyway (I gave him a bit of a discount) because he wanted to melt faces at FNM the next day. He'll be happy when Extended rolls around, and he's now a loyal customer who knows that I'm more interested in helping my players than I am in making a quick buck. This one's a no brainer to me. If the player is more experienced, I'd be less likely to say something - mainly because I presume the player knows what he's doing and I don't want to insult him. It's usually the right choice to speak up, especially when the player is less experienced.

7) This one is uncomfortable, since I quite obviously believe that a player needs to know his prices! This comes down to reputation, since it's pretty hard to turn down someone just handing you what amounts to free money. The facts:

7a) The card just recently shot up in price due to its inclusion in a successful deck.

-The player is probably not up-to-date. It would be nice of you to inform that player and ask if perhaps you could meet in the middle.

7b) The player is experienced and often makes balanced, fair trades.

-He clearly is missing something here. Again, its not your responsibility to inform him, but you will likely make a friend and solidify a good trading partner.

7c) He values the other cards in the trade normally.

-See above

7d) You once saw him rip off a little kid in a trade.

-I threw this in to see how vindictive my readers are. In theory, I don' t believe this matters, and you may not know the full story behind the "rip off" trade. It's also not your place to exact revenge, but I can't lie; I'd be a bit tempted to feed the rip-off artist a bit of his own home cooking and I won't be surprised to hear other people echo the same sentiment.

I'd love to hear everyone's feedback on these examples. I tried to put them together from my own experiences and observations. Discussing morality and ethics can be difficult, but I have to insist that you keep your comments civil and on-point. Everyone's set of ethics are different, but I usually stand behind my version of the golden rule; I'm not going to do anything to anyone else that I wouldn't want them to do to me. That includes lying, ripping off, and other forms of dishonesty. With that said, get talking, people!