[Avodah] ona'ah and on-line discounters

[Harry Weiss]

> From: "Michael Kopinsky" <mkopinsky at gmail.com>

>> 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):

Would Onaah even be an issue here.  The list price is the real price.  If 
you call Artscroll or Felheim you will ususally pay list.  There are many 
other retailers that do charge that list.

They offer sales,and discounts (such as buying directly on line).  There 
are dealers who will offer much bigger discounts.    There is a standard 
markup in the book industry and the list price is based on that.

If some vendors elect to charge less than the list price, I don't think 
that makes the discounted price the base price for cacluclating Ona'ah.

At worst it is an item which has no set price and thus ona'ah is not 
applicable.  The various prices are readily available to most peeople, who 
may elect to pay a higher price for convenience to support a local 
business etc, but I don't think that is any form of Genevas Daas.


>

Harry J. Weiss
hjweiss at panix.com