Was it ethical to scoop the dealer...?

[Lugerdoc]

TWIMC, Another situation not previously mentioned is gunshow courtesy. If someone approaches my PAID tables at a show and offers to sell me a pistol, I don't expect others standing nearby to jump in on the deal and make an auction out of it. If I pass, then no problem. In a lot of cases, I'll suggest another dealer who might be interested in the item, if it is out of my area of interest or expertise. I know that I may have passed on some rare items by my lack of knowledge. Once at a Fresno show, I refered a kid with Grandpa's Luffwaffe swords, daggers, flags, etc. to my neighbor Mike Gabor, who bought it all for about $2500. Turned out that the LW HQ flag later sold to a museum for $10K. On the other hand, at a local St.Louis show where I was not set up, another young man offered to sell a table holder a nice AC/41 P38, but he declined to even offer because he already had several post war P1s on his table in the $250 to $300 range. As we walked away from the table, I was happy to purchase his WW2 for his offering price of $250. Tom H.