Even if the
seller is not a collector and knows nothing about what he's
selling?
Yep, even then. They should take a little bit of pride in their work, and also
do the rest of us the common courtesy of first checking anything that they
present as fact.
If the former isn't possible, there's absolutely nothing wrong with listing an
item and admitting that they know nothing about it! If the seller knows
nothing about the item, there's no reason for not just saying so...
Exactly.
I've bought many things over the years -- at radio rallies (hamfests), in
second-hand shops, and on E-bay -- where the seller doesn't know much, if
anything, about it. Maybe it turned up in some scrap, maybe it came from
the estate of a relative, whatever. Often I've done rather well by
recognising something that others haven't recognised (equally, I've
kicked myself a few times for _not_ recognising something as the missing
part I need to complete a <foo>).
And I have no problem with sellers not knowing much about the item.
Nobody can know everything.
That does not excuse them from making up false information. IMHO they
should either take the time and trouble to check (which may boost the
final selling price, so it could be to their adbantage), or just say
noting. Present the facts (in this case just quote what it says on the
nameplate), let the buyers decide.
IANAL but I think that presenting false information like this would be
classed as misrepresentation. And even 'innocent misrepresentation' --
giving false information when you had no reason to suspect it was false,
is an offence.
-tony
