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?

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

John, I wasn't referring to you.

[John]

ok sorry

[Jamie 'gr8rocshot' Ruane]

Hey, it's all good.

[Gary Burdick]

That is sad. Why on earth would you not want your bought and paid for disc? If it is done right, showing him other discs with your name, pdga #,phone # on them. He would probably just give it up. Or offer him another disc or a few bucks and get yours back. There is a guy who just travels around the USA retreiving discs from water holes on disc golf courses. He has takes thousands of discs from others. He takes them to play it again sports and sells them for gas money to get to the next course. He also takes videos of tournaments and sells them, not giving the players a dime.

[bazillion]

The Law of Karma governs.

If someone finds a disc with contact info on the back, the right thing to do is return it. If not, then the finder risks coming back as a rock, next lifetime ;-)

[jon korevec]

Maybe they would come back as one of my discs.........Ouch!

[Bruce Brakel]

I have not read the entire thread so forgive me if this has been offered:

Michigan has a "lost property found" statute. For him to sell your discs is against the law. When you find lost property in Michigan you are required to turn it into the police, fill out a little form, and come back at the end of the designated period of time to claim the property if the owner does not [and you want it]. You could just call the owner if the owner is identifiable and obviously no one would care. You can't just say, "Finders keepers."

If you are going to follow up with e-bay, I can go get the statute number. What he is doing is illegal. You could also follow up with the police, but they are so ignorant about the law, they probably would not do anything.

[Edit] The statute has been changed since I read it last but all of the above still seems to be true. The statute is MCL 434.21 through 434.26.

Finder's keepers, by the way, is not the law anywhere that I know of. The common law "treasure trove law" says that lost property is yours until the owner claims it, and abandonned property goes to whoever claims it first. Most states have overridden the common law with a statute. Michigan has, so we don't have to discuss what is lost and what is abandonned.

[Greg Simmons]

We used to turn in discs to the visitor center at a state park in Ms. Then we found out they would not call the owner, but would mark out the name and write "RENTAL DISC" on them. It doesn't get more bogus than that!

[Disc Player Sports]

Does the term 'city worker' come to mind?

[discgnome]

Hey Shawn,
Hey, keep the faith brother. Even though there will be negative people around the course, keep remembering it's all about promoting the game of disc golf. No negative vibes and all birdies is what we all wish for. But we all must face the fact that there are people who are dishonest. I myself have had discs stolen from out of my bag while trying to show others how to throw. Matter of fact I lost a disc off of a table one time when I thought everyone at the tourney was on the up and up. But still I will give a disc away or sell it at a lost sometimes just because someone needs the disc. I always try to keep a few extra light weight Rocs or Aviars around just to give to new players and kids on the course. Just keep a good attitude, maybe this guys has bigger problems than just selling other's discs. Just keep'em flying and enjoy the game for what it was created for, ......FUN!

[Senior]

It seems that no matter where you go there is always some dip-wad who tries to make a buck at others expense with lost and found plastic.

We have a resident disc hunter in our club who usually calls first and offers to return the disc for a $5 reward. He sells the rest out of his trunk. I buy a disc from him from time to time as long as it is clearly a "non-marked disc".

But there are some players out there who have had some dealings with this character going out and retrieving discs before you can even get back, and asking for money, and he has built a bad rep because of this. Sort of a disc bounty hunter.

I myself have been treated fairly, but I think it has to do with my policy on found discs. I usually give a person a fiver or a six-pack or something to show my apprecation without them even having to ask, and offer the reward when I get the call. Because of that I have had many discs returned and people have refused to take a reward.

It's the un-writtten disc golfer code.

You lose a disc, the person who finds it calls, and when they call you offer them a resonable reward based on the value of the disc. If you lose an unreplaceable 1st run CE driver worth $100+ that you are crying over, you show your thanks with a relative reward. Somehow 5 bucks just wouldn't cut it for a disc like that. But it has to be what the person can afford of course too, and it the thought that counts in the end.

People who abuse this rule get a bad name and either get labeled as a disc poacher or a cheap skate. If you are reading this and you are one of the above such labeled people, I hope you have nightmares.

[Jamie]

much laughter was created by this thread. The answer is "NO" you shouldn't be mad. Dont lett other people's actions get to you. I say, Don't forget your disc and dont throw it in the water.