<p>But obviously the school is okay with them being sold for a profit so no harm no foul. You can go to Best Buy on Black Friday and buy a deeply discounted Playstation and turn around and sell it in the box on the internet for way more in a couple of weeks. That “undermines” the point of Best Buy giving you a holiday discount. You were punctual. You got to it before the other shoppers. Is reselling your Playstation that YOU paid for, then, unethical?</p>
<p>Poetgrl - Badass! Thanks, I might! 
I’m not much of a sports person so I wasn’t upset at myself, but my girlfriend was none too pleased with me, LOL. I appreciate the offer! Look at you, being all super-DUPER-ethical. :D</p>
<p>I don’t mind profit. I like profit. Anytime we make a profit, in any way, is not necessarily ethical, to be congratulated. Insider trading comes to mind quickly.</p>
<p>to address your question again, frenchie, post 41, that example doesn’t cut it. That discounted item was open to all the public at the same discount, on a limited, first-come-first serve basis. Their intent is to discount some items in hopes of drawing in more customers. That is very different from a student-only purchase like we have been discussing.</p>
<p>Yeah but it’s not like you’re making a profit directly at someone else’s expense, e.g. stealing something from someone and reselling it. Any “harm” caused to the purchaser was solely self-inflicted via their own lack of punctuality/forethought/etc. The owner of an object is simply offering that object for sale, an object that they again obtained by totally legal/ethical means (I hold that buying anything at its set price, regardless of intent to resell or not, is both legal and ethical; you enter an implied contract with the seller and the terms are ‘buyer gets the object, seller gets paid’ unless otherwise stipulated - which nothing is, in this case). No one is obligated to buy. There is no breach of ethics there, then, again, in my opinion.</p>
<p>Just out of curiosity, do all of you who considered it unethical for a student to ask other students for more than “face value” for a ticket consider it unethical for a student to offer another student selling tickets less than face value.</p>
<p>^probably so. It may depend on circumstances. For example - student 1: “Do you want to buy my unwanted ticket for tonight at face value? I have asked everyone else and no one else is interested. You are my last hope for selling this ticket” Student 2: “I hadn’t really planned to go to that game. It is worth less than face value to me and that is all the allowance I have left. Are you willing to sell for less than face value”?</p>
<p>The situation becomes more complicated and we need more details. imho</p>
<p>Younghoss - just saw your edit - yes, but they are reselling the tickets to OTHER STUDENTS who had the exact same opportunity they did. Even if they weren’t - again, I don’t see where the original price factors into the ethics of reselling. By that logic, senior citizens should not be allowed to resell anything bought with a senior citizen discount at more than face value, either, for example. Would you agree with that, too?</p>
<p>If I go to a yard sale and see an old painting, I might tell the seller it is just like my dear old grammy had when I was a child, but it was lost in the fire. And my, how I would treasure that painting- it would almost be like having Grammy back! That pitch might play on the sympathy of the seller and s/he might discount the price. But then, I take that painting to Sotheby’s because I recognized it as an authentic Matisse.
I might legally sell it for a whopping profit. Unethical to have knowingly bought that painting under false pretenses. Not true if I just walked up to the seller and offered full price, then re-sold it.</p>
<p>The students are not lying to obtain their discount; they ARE paying THEIR full price. They ARE STUDENTS and are therefore ENTITLED to a student discount at the university they attend. That IS full price for them. They didn’t buy their tickets under any false pretenses at all. That example is not at all comparable.</p>
<p>Yes. Hat. I do consider it unethical. </p>
<p>Also, as an alum. I will give my ticket to a student. Not sell it. </p>
<p>But ethics matter to me</p>
<p>Poetgrl - I would say that makes you very generous, but then <em>not being generous</em> is not the same thing as being unethical, in my opinion. It’s being neutral - being greedy at others’ expense (again ex. stealing) slides you down past neutral on the ethics scale and into “unethical.” Again, IMO. Being generous just puts you on the +++ side.</p>
<p>If poetgrl gives you a ticket and you can’t make the game for some reason, is it ethical for you to sell it?</p>
<p>Karma frenchie. Karma. </p>
<p>The golden rule. Do unto others. However you want to phrase it. </p>
<p>I’ve been remarkably fortunate in this life. I believe you get back what you put out there. </p>
<p>I say this because you are young and still deciding how you will live. </p>
<p>JMO</p>
<p>Alh - No, because she sacrificed her own ticket on her good will that I would use it and go to the game, and I would be taking advantage of her kindness. Getting a free ticket from a generous person is not the same thing as purchasing a ticket from an institution who has no moral/legal/emotional input or opinion on what you do with it after you purchase it.</p>
<p>Poetgrl - I agree, that is a good rule to live by, and I am not personally out there reselling tickets (obviously, lol!), I just don’t have a problem with the people who do 
Sounds like something some of my business-minded friends would do and I wouldn’t fault them for it.</p>
<p>re: Poetgrl’s hypothetical ticket - (It would be another thing if she said “I don’t want this, you can have it, I don’t care what you do with it,” but that certainly wouldn’t be the case here).</p>
<p>If I give you a ticket, it is yours young frenchie. </p>
<p>To do with as you will. </p>
<p>Otherwise I will just give it back to the rams club to sell and donate.</p>
<p>Wish I’d got in on this deal. I might have even promised not to wear dark blue. </p>
<p>But what’s this stuff about students having to buy tickets?</p>
<p>Awww, well thank you, that is very kind indeed. I would still use it, since by my own personal standards for myself, it would feel rude to do otherwise unless I had some compelling reason ex. short on rent and about to be homeless.</p>
<p>But I don’t. Heehee. Again, the offer is much appreciated. I’ll ask the gf if she has any games she’s keen on going to.</p>
<p>SomeOldGuy - I am totally basketball-dumb even after 4 years at this school. There’s a lottery which I missed the deadline for, I know that. edit - is that only for important games or something? Do the other games go off availability or something? </p>
<p>(<em>hides face</em> I was hoping to never admit I’m about to graduate and never went to a single game)</p>
<p>Op here, I was not disturbed by the fact tickets were sold out. I was disturbed when I discovered that the university had sanctioned a site, integrated it into the university website and posted an explanation of how to use the site and then when I discovered that student tickets were ONLY to be purchased by other students but the price was not face value I was disturbed. I found that unethical because it is not a public event in the truest sense of the word and because the purchaser and seller were both students. I’m assuming the ticket vendor adds the upcharge tax value otherwise it’s scalping and in some states that is illegal so my assumption only was that this seems unethical for a university to allow this to all students who underright equally through fees, etc. The price should be the same for ALL students. That is where my ethics conflict. It’s unfortunate and perhaps symptomatic of our current culture that not all find this unethical. </p>
<p>Frenchie, my two older kids never went to a basketball or football game at their respective schools. No one says you HAVE to go, but all students should be able to buy tickets at the same price either through the purchase of a season pass or individually at face value for tickets that go unused in the special seats - which are the only seats available at a discount. The seats themselves are not even assigned just the section. If a student does not use their ticket then they would be reimbursed the price they paid. </p>
<p>Because this is sanctioned and managed by the university and because student section tickets require a bar code and a scan to match the student ID this is entirely different than some student in the parking lot selling their ticket. They can’t buy a student section ticket in this manner because the bar codes won’t match. So in my humble opinion the university system for redistribution is highly unethical. And it would be very easy to rectify by an ethical organization.</p>