*Headdesk*

[fangrrl_squees]

It's moral quandary time!

Some of these B7 fanzines I've cheerfully taken off my friend's hands are, it seems, worth a few bucks to certain folks. Not gobs and gobs, mind you, but $10 - $30 each, depending on the title.

If money wasn't tight at Casa Cthulhu, I wouldn't give a damn. I'd gladly give them away for the cost of postage.

But money is tight. And, by my reckoning, I'm sitting on about $300 worth of 'zines - possibly more - if I can find a buyer.

That's the kicker. Finding a buyer. Well, that and wrestling my conscience to the ground that's saying I should give the things away, as initially planned, because that's the kind-and-nice thing to do - even if I suspect that some recipients would immediately turn around and sell the items on ebay, once read. After all, we might be fans, but we're also only human, right? Right. This moral quandary being a case in point, for instance.

Would it be horrible of me if I sold these 'zines, rather than giving them away?

*fretfretfret*

Maybe if I offered them up at a bargain price - less than I'm seeing online? Maybe that would quiet my conscience but still satisfy the little black duck that sees small-but-significant piles of cash in fanzine form on the coffee table...

Blech. I wish I wasn't broke. The matter would be much easier to resolve, then...

Comments

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

bargain price would work

[thunderwill.livejournal.com]

I say sell them. :) maybe you can sell them on Ebay your self or theres a ebay store across the street from sun valley mall. they take pics and post them for you. ( i was going to sell some comics but there to new) i think they take 10% or some thing like that. better then just giving it away :shrug:

[renn.livejournal.com]

If you can sell them, sell them. Srsly. Mostly because a) you need the dosh and b) you're absolutely right that most people would ebay them the moment they finished reading them. I'm sure you've been kind-and-nice before; you'll certainly have the opportunity to be kind-and-nice again-- I don't see any karmic problem with selling them for money you actually need.

[psybelle.livejournal.com]

I'd say sell them. There's an entire spectrum of possibilities ranging from being generous (less ethically-loaded terminology than "kind&nice") and giving them away, and being an avaricious price-gouger.

Ask for a "fair price" and see what happens... and you can always buy lunch or somesuch for the friends who gave them to you when funds aren't quite so tight.

[britgeekgrrl.livejournal.com]

I just called said friend and said 'for Crissakes, don't throw away the ones I left with you that didn't fit in my suitcase'. She appreciated the heads-up, as money's even tighter for her.

Now we're both hoping that the *original* source of all this goodness (a friend of the aforementioned friend) hasn't thrown away the *four* more boxes she apparently has/had, as she could be sitting on a gold mine... good fortune might abound on all sides. ;)

[johno.livejournal.com]

She said "don't throw them away" but did she don't sell them for what the market will bear???

Personally, I say let the market of ebay decide the value.

[fangrrl-squees.livejournal.com]

Given that this situation has blown up today, I have no idea what the others involved will try moving the 'zines for.

As for the market of ebay, whilst I gladly went there to look up selling prices and such for a lot of the zines, I'm going to try avoiding them for the time being. Between their listing fees and the sheer amount of time required to write and post a good listing, I don't think it'd be a very effective way of selling the items, unless I did 'em in job lots.

I'm giving some thought to contacting one particularly significant resaler of fanzines and offering the whole lot to them...

[uncledark.livejournal.com]

Sell 'em. And don't go selling them short, either. Ask a fair price, and let them pay more, if they will. Nothing wrong with making a bit of money, especially when you really need it.

There's no rule that fandom has to be poor. Hell, if fen didn't sell each other stuff, there wouldn't be fandom. Not as we know it, at any rate.

[thecoughlin.livejournal.com]

besides,

would a single person that has passed them on to your resent the sale of them given your current situation.

I doubt it largely.

[rani23.livejournal.com]

Sell 'em and don't think twice about it.

[kaffy_r]

By all means, sell them, and don't worry about it at all. Doing so could help you and your Casa financially, right? Then I'd say it's perfectly ethical to sell 'em.