Ethics Question - Selling to "Scammers"

I find myself in an unexpected situation with some potentially ticklish ethics issues so I thought I'd ask the good folks here for opinions.

I've recently started a small, local feeder operation and am trying to build up my customer base. I was contacted early this week for rats by a guy in my area who has been exposed as a scammer in the not-so-distant past. Long story short, he's been busted selling stolen animals, though he did "do right" when he was caught by returning the stolen animals to the person who outed him on the BOI.

While I certainly want to increase my business, honesty and integrity are of utmost importance to me. I've lost reptile sales before because I refuse to deal with shady characters, but selling a snake to someone who will be keeping it or reselling it is a bit different from selling feeders that are already dead or else destined to die. I'm struggling with whether to sell rodents to this guy; while he has never done me any harm personally (and it seems somewhat unfair to indict him on his dealings with others that are, legally at least, hearsay to me), I question the wisdom of doing any form of business with someone whose reputation in the community is at best shaky...even though, again, he did make right on his one "bust" when threatened with police involvement. To my knowledge, the animals he's been selling lately were all legally obtained (though he does "flip" a lot). And there is always the possibility - however small it may be - that he learned his lesson and will stick to the straight and narrow from here on out.

What say ye, reputable members of the herp community? Give this guy a chance, or skip it?

P.S. - feel free to e-mail me with advice, but please no PMs - my box is almost full and I have to go through and clear it out.

Someone who knowingly sells stolen property is not someone I would sell to.
And returning something only when they got busted is not really doing right.
For the sake of having a good reputation I would not associate with this person in any business dealings. Just my 2 cents.

The part that would concern me is that he got busted for selling "stolen" animals. If the person wasn't going to be anywhere near my property or have any access then I wouldn't have a problem selling him feeders.

The way I see it, is when a criminal (shoplifter for example) gets out of jail, they have to go to the store and eat. The store he/she stole from may not ever let her back in while that management is in charge, but other stores would (they wouldn't know).

I personally would pass on the person's business but that's just my little opinion.

Originally Posted by AbsoluteApril

I personally would pass on the person's business but that's just my little opinion.

Interested in debating the issue?

The guy has to buy feeders from somewhere. He can probably get them off the internet (f/t) from the bigger organizations, but why not let the little guy make some money?

My concern would be the "theft" possibility.

This is very much a debatable issue... The guy gets busted selling stolen animals so there is no forgiving him for that... that's just out and out wrong however if he doesn't have access to any of your stock besides over the internet then why not give the small business a chance to make a little money? I wouldn't see a problem with selling feeders to someone because they are dead already and he does need to feed his animals so why not let it be the little guy?

I myself wouldn't sell any type of live stock to said person but if it were feeders I would give it a chance.

Just my .02

If I know someone is a 'bad guy' then I wouldn't want to do business with them for anything, live stock or dead feeders. There's someone that a long time ago got in trouble, served their time and is selling stuff that I would love to have, but I just can't ethically deal with them due to their past. I know that's not quite the same situation, but just trying to give an example of how hard-headed I am about it. LOL I guess it comes down to just the simple association.

I understand your point about letting the 'little guy' make money but even making money off of scammers just doesn't seem quite right to me, what's the moral difference between buying from or selling to a scammer?

Plus, if this person is a known theif, what's to stop them from following 'you' (the seller) home and staking out your place?

Ill just throw this out there (mainly as a another POV) say you do sell him feeders, and he is still selling stolen animals, what's to stop him from giving you the dirty money?

Another POV: How is he supposed to work his way back up and earn respect if we DON'T give him that chance?

If we just assume that he's dealing dirty still that's what we are doing. Even prisoners get another chance. In the absence of no recent misbehaving..when does he get parole?