[Avodah] ona'ah and on-line discounters

[Michael Kopinsky]

On 2/14/07, David Riceman <driceman at worldnet.att.net> wrote:
> Books, and many other commodities, now have a "label" price and a "street"
> price which are different, due to the common presence of discounters.  What
> does that due to the din of ona'ah? It would be perverse to say that every
> bookseller who prints a price on his book is guilty of ona'ah.  On the other
> hand, it seems invariably true that a person who looks hard can find a new
> copy for less than the cover price.

You seem to be taking for granted (and I agree with this, but would like
to see it in print) that the price as far as ona'ah is concerned is the
street price, and not the label price.  The question of whether it is
muttar to write something on the book to make it appear to be worth more
than it actually is, is lechorah the din in the mishna at the end of
Hazahav (BM 60a at the bottom):

"Ein mefarchesim lo es haadam v'lo es habeheima v'lo es hakeilim."

See the gemara on 60b explaining this mishna, and/or the Rambam Mechira
18:1-4.  From the lashon of the Rambam at the end of Halacha 2 it is
perhaps mashma that he is only mattir making new things look as good as
they really are, not better than they actually are.  If you understand the
Rambam this way, it would therefore be assur to write the label price on
the book.

(What about not on the book?  From the Rambam at the end of Halacha 1
"V'afilu lignov da'as habrios b'dvarim assur" it seems that it doesn't
make a difference if it's on the cheifetz itself or not.  And I'm sure
that when the Rambam says d'varim he means unspoken words as well.)

Incidentally, for the major Jewish booksellers (=Feldheim & Artscroll)
this lechorah is not a problem, because the street price on them
is (almost) universally the label price less 10%, which is less than
shtus, and thus muttar. (Except according to the Ramban that I quoted here
last time that says that any ona'ah is assur, even less than shtus, and
even karka, but I don't think any poskim will be chosheish to that
Ramban (at least, I don't think I would, were I ra'uy l'hora'ah) since it
requires "lav-davka"-ing numerous gemaras throughout hazahav.)

(My tzad safeik here is that perhaps geneivas da'as is different from
ona'ah, and will be assur b'pachus mishtus, even according to the other
poskim.)