Doing the Right Thing Pays Off

I’ve been called many things in my life, opinionated, obstinate, spoiled, stuck-up, and a few others, but I’ve never been called dishonest, that I know of. Well, actually, there was one time I was accused of being dishonest. That was when a high-school English teacher, Mrs. Pek, gave me a failing grade for my short story, convinced that I had plagiarized it.

Of all the lessons my parents taught me, they believed that dishonesty was one of the most despicable transgressions one could ever commit. I always knew that the consequences would be much greater if they found out I lied to them than if I just owned up to whatever I had done wrong. (White lies were okay, however, especially if told to spare another person’s feelings.)

I’ve always felt it was better to lose in the short run than to live with the lifelong knowledge that I had taken advantage of someone, anyone, even a billion-dollar corporation. So, I’d like to tell you about a dilemma I was faced with recently, and how doing the right thing actually paid off.

We had a portable satellite radio and a vehicle kit that were not being used. They worked great in my daughter’s car when moving her back from Arizona, because we didn’t have to keep finding new radio stations and dealing with the static as signals came in and went out. But, we have satellite radio built into one car and use our iPhones for the other, so I thought I’d try to sell the portable version on eBay.

I’m not a real experienced eBay seller, but I’ve sold a few things, successfully, in the past few years. A quick search of the site showed plenty of radios just like what I had to offer and none of them was selling for very much. So, I decided to bundle the radio and the vehicle kit to provide a complete solution for my customer.

I waited until I received an email from eBay with a free-listing offer, started the seven-day auction at $60, and crossed my fingers. A few days later, someone contacted me and asked if I would sell my items to her then and there. I replied that since many people wait until the final hours of the auction to start bidding, she could have them for $60 if the auction was unsuccessful. She replied, “I will give you $110.00 right now. You can withdraw the listing, there are no bids!”

Her offer was tempting, because I didn’t know if I would even receive $60 from the auction. But, it didn’t feel right, so I decided not to reply and just see how it went. A couple of days later, I checked and saw that the bidding was at $95. Not bad. The next day, the bidding had risen to $150. Better. And the auction ended at $222.50. Wow! If I had gone against my gut, I would have lost more than $100.

The radio and car kit are like new, so the buyer has a great solution and saved some money. I’m happy, because I won’t have the boxes gathering dust anymore, and I recovered a good amount of money from the original purchase. Best of all, I feel great, and my conscience is clear.

By the way, I did write that story in high school.

Ann Silverthorn (Twitter: @annsilverthorn) is a versatile blogger who also writes about a wide variety of topics in numerous genres, including non-fiction, fiction, poetry, travel, and grant writing.