Posted on 01/22/2013 5:41:37 AM PST by rawhide
When James Labrecque listed an old safeto which he did not have the combinationon eBay, the seller warned, "What you see is what you get, no returns, and no money back." A Tennessee man purchased it for $122.93, had a welder cut it openand found $26,000 inside. The buyer shared the news with Labrecque via a positive review on the auction site, and Labrecque quickly attempted to convince the buyer to give him some of the cash, to no avail. In fact, WMC-TV reports, the buyer quoted Labrecque's own eBay disclaimer right back to him when turning him down.
"I made a mistake, you know, that's what it boils down to. And it cost me dearly," says Labrecque, who adds that he shook the safe and didn't think there was anything inside. "I feel like the stupidest idiot in the world.
I gave away a safe with $26,000 in it." He also insists that if he were in the buyer's place, he would have offered to split the cash 50/50 with the seller. "That's a chunk of change, you know. That's life-altering money."
Pocketed the money
Tipped the welder
I would not have gloated to the seller, but in any event the buyer has no moral or legal reason to give any to the seller...the terms of the sale were clear and indeed made by the seller.
I would have done the split or give all the money back. Clearly it was a mistake. If I found it at the junk yard or purchased it from a 2nd hand store, I might do something differently.
I probably wouldn’t have bought it in the first place but if I did, I wouldn’t have said anything about what was in it, nor would I give part of it back to the seller. That doesn’t make any sense at all. The sale means the item and contents if any transferred from seller to buyer totally, not conditionally.
Darn tootin’ — for me that’s 3 years of income. Seriously life-altering money. Yet there are (financially) fortunate people who’d turn up their noses at it.
Probably not, but I'd definitely keep some. I'd be pretty annoyed if the guy wanted to thank me, give me a 50 buck reward, and get all the money back. I don't think I'd go along with that, but I might go along with 50/50, or even just keeping 25%.
And NOT tell a soul
Who is the real idiot?
The guy who sold the safe?
or the guy who disclosed the contents?
Now he has to pay taxes on that 26k
“or the guy who disclosed the contents?”
This story immediately made me thing of a graphic that floats around the internet of a World War II looking GI drinking a cup of coffee with the caption,
“How about a nice big cup of STFU!”
(For anyone that hasn’t seen it, ST = Shut the, you can guess the rest.)
Don't feed the monster...
Bingo!
You get the Kewpie Doll!
I wouldn’ have said a word about it. Now the IRS knows and he gets to pay his fair share to the piglets at the slop channel.
“Pocketed the money
Tipped the welder”
Exactly!
What we have here is a case of two morons.
One who couldn’t find a way to determine the contents of the safe and one who couldn’t find a way to keep his yapper shut.
Oh yes,
Sell the destroyed safe for scrap
Waste not, Want not
If things keep going the way they are, by the end of Obama’s reign(2017?)that 13k will probably buy a sandwich and a quart of milk.
Now the IRS will know about it and want their cut as well....
I bought a ratty old electric guitar at a yard sale for $35.00.
I took the whole thing apart and found out that it was a 1984 USA Fender Phil Kubicki custom neck bolted onto an old Fender Mustang body.
I listed and sold each piece separately on eBay, for this:
Neck...$275.00
Body....$99.95
Pieces and hardware package $19.95
In the hands of a collector, these were probably worth a lot more, but I was happy and so were my customers.
Do I need to locate the yard sale and give back money to the person who sold me the guitar?
I don’t think so.
It’s called capitalism.
> I wouldn have said a word about it. Now the IRS knows and he gets to pay his fair share to the piglets at the slop channel.
You know the government wields too much power when you can’t tell the difference between the IRS and the Mafia
This saturday on a pure impulsive whim I went into a Bargain Village thrift store and found an authentic and discontinued Sydney Oilskins full length drover in XXL size and in mint condition...for $30.
Just my size and I always wanted a good drover, they cost at least $160 or more.
Exactly. There’s the whole short term capital gain thing here. Ouch.
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