Should I be mad about this?

I was searching on eBay for discs when I came across a bunch of them being sold about 10 minutes from my apartment. While looking at the auctions I noticed that two discs that were being sold look exactly like once I lost last year and this year in the pond at my home course of Mt. Pleasant, MI. I put my name and my phone number on the discs so I wrote the seller asking him if there was one. He replied with "Yes there is a name and number on both. Shawn Welling is the name." When I told him that those were my discs and I would pay him to end the auction plus some for his trouble of diving in the pond to find all of these discs he replied with "I would rather not end my auctions sorry." Should I be mad that he is selling my discs? He did go down in the pond to get them but I did have my name and number on them. I know I can always buy more but one of them has personal value along with it.

What is the legal dealings with that anyway? I am not going to take any action because well, it's a couple discs, but just pure curiosity because it is on CMU's campus which I believe would be state property, plus they were mine to begin with.

Anyway, what does everyone think. Is it ok to not contact the owner of a disc and sell it or should you always contact them?

[Eric Sears]

Mark Stephens said:

Hope in your fellow golfer is about all you can do. Try to not worry about it too much when people on the course are playing with your discs. Happened to me twice so far.

Kyle Jacob Smalling said:

I go by this rule

I call people, I hope they call me

I'll buy a disc that has been found, but only if its nameless

Yea know when it comes to this, I think Karma goes a really long way. If it has a name or number on it, turn it in to your local shop if they do a lost and found or call the number. If you find disc that has no markings or anything on it, consider yourself lucky.

-Eric-

[Seewhere]

you can let ebay know he is selling stolen merchandise and they will pull the auction.

[CBass]

I'm sorry to say that if you leave it in a pond or somewhere and someone else puts in work to retrieve them, it should be theirs. Would you go through the trouble of returning a golf ball with a name on it? Golf courses are a decent example of how this works. When someone loses a club, either someone keeps it, turns it in to the pro shop, or tries to find the owner on the course. The pro shop will hang on to it in their lost and found while waiting for the owner to pick it up. When no one comes after it, they will put it in a used bin for sale, put it in a rental set and charge for the use of the set, or give it away. It is sort of a moral dilemma, sucks, I know. I usually put in as much effort as I can to find my misplaced items, after that, I guess its just fair game... :(

[Jackson]

I always call or email, if I can. My name and number are on every one of my discs. Some people don't call, but without that information they couldn't if they wanted to. With my kids the rule has always been, "If you find a disc with a number, call it. If it doesn't have a number, ask everyone you see on the course and in the lot if they lost it. If, by the end of the round, the nameless disc has no owner, you can keep it."

I once had an eighth grader find a disc I really missed. He called me, and I talked to his Mom. I bought him a brand new disc and traded him at his front door. introducing him to my nine-year-old as "the nice person who found my disc and called me". He feels good, disc golfers look good to him and his parents, my daughter witnesses kindness, and all's right with the world.

[Audi]

Ebay does have policies against things like this. As long as you can show ID and he is unable to prove that they were purchased he would be fined and not allowed to auction while on their "probasionary period". Not to mention you would get your gear back as his expense.

[Kyle Jacob Smalling]

to those who are saying "oh, you left it there, so its his"

legally, apparently.

But, morally, no.

that guy should stop being a piece of crap and give people discs back.

I've thought of gettin in the water JUST to get other peoples discs and call them.

I could use some good karma, my game sucks at the moment

[CBass]

Here, here. I hate the person I call and wants me to run the disc across town to return it to them.

Kyle Jacob Smalling said:

to those who are saying "oh, you left it there, so its his"

legally, apparently.

But, morally, no.

that guy should stop being a piece of crap and give people discs back.

I've thought of gettin in the water JUST to get other peoples discs and call them.

I could use some good karma, my game sucks at the moment

[Kyle Jacob Smalling]

Usually, they just come to my house and offer me a reward for their discs O_o

I just give them the disc and go back inside

[Chain Gang]

Losing any disc does indeed suck. Think of it this way. The next time you lose a disc, may it be found by an unemployed disc golfer. Who now has two discs, and goes on to win a few World Championships! Food for thought?

[Mike]

Hey Shawn, that really sucks! I believe that ponds are considered private property when not located on state land. As those ponds are on CMUs campus and not sure how they are zoned it's a toss up. I know here in Big Rapids I have actually ran into students that are playing with other peoples discs that I know they lost out there, and they have sharpied out that persons name and phone #, just to put their name and phone # on it. One kid told me "If he really wanted it he would have looked for it and found it" (isn't that why you put your name and # on them? That pissed me off). All of us real dgers know that sometimes you can't find it or may throw a couple of practice shots and forget about one, It's BS!! So I gave them the option of giving it to me or me taking it from them and seeing if they can get it back from me. They have all just handed it over. As a seller on Ebay I would always try to contact the owner, but i'm not a tool who dosn't return discs with a name or number on them. Hope you can get it worked out.

[Mike]

Also I forgot to add theat on Ebay, if your add does not have any bids on it yet, you may end it with out any problem or it looking suspicous as a seller. So the person trying to sell it is holding out trying to earn like $5 for a used disc, seems how used discs go really cheap anyway unless it is a rare disc. It's all karma, they will probably loose a disc and not have it returned to them in the future. They will just have to sell used pond discs on Ebay for $3 that they swam through goose poop to find.

[Tarazarr]

If I find a marked disc I return it. If I find an unmarked disc, I keep it (unless the course has a pro shop with a lost and found).

You left your disc behind. If this guy dives for disc to sell them, then that's how he makes money, he's not out there diving to be a good samaritan so no foul. You had the opprotunity to dive for your own disc and you didn't...you had the opprotunity to re-buy your disc...you didn't..obviously they were not that important to you

I don't think you have any reason to be mad at anyone but yourself for failing to take the 2 opportuities you had to get your disc back.