Is the Antiques Roadshow propagating immoral behavior?

That’s just called the antiques business. If all people knew the value of what they had, dealers wouldn’t make the money they do.

I don’t think that it is immoral. Antique dealers should know what they are selling, if they don’t then, oh well, you got yourself a great deal!
If you are taking advantage of someone then it is immoral. For instance, if I talk my grandma or neighbor, into giving me a family heirloom saying that I love it and want to have it for sentimental reasons, then I take it to Antiques Roadshow and find out it is worth a lot and then sell it. That would be immoral.

The person in this case you menion has cheated the other person. Knowingly.
Not imoral per-se, but certainly not upright. A person with an operative conscience would probably go back and give a fair amount as that would be living the “golden rule”. It would also show an understanding of Universal Law; what goes around comes around. There are those who would argue this and call anyone who did something like this crazy. It all comes down to being able to live with one’s self. So, are you the type of prson who can do something like your example? Obviously there are many who can. I would like to think that I am not one such. You cannot dictate the conscience of another, only your own. I believe that you have already shown us your ethical standard by your question. So what you do with your ethics I leave to yourself to determine. I believe you will make choices in the future that will bear witness to an upright character.

Buyer beware, seller beware.

If someone throws something out on the curb for the refuse collector to pick up, and you drive by, pick it up and then it’s worth thousands, should you then go to the house the object was in front of and offer them money? I don’t think so. If I sell my car for a few hundred below book value, is the buyer obligated to come to me and say “No, I want to give you book value?” If I went to a store that had a half price sale, and I got an item for half price, should I say to the store, “No, I want to pay you full price?”

There are way too many other worse things than antique road show. I mean come on. That is the way the antique world works. I just don’t see the tv show, antiques road show, is any of the cause of the moral decay in the US. One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.

How is it immoral? Usually these people don’t even know the value of what they are buying and the previous owners don’t know the value of what they are selling. The person who bought the chair for $20 is in no way obligated to pay the previous owner any more money. When you sell something it no longer belongs to you. If the previous owner had it appraised before selling it he/she could have sold it for a higher price. It is not immoral for buying something for $20 and finding out later that it’s worth thousands. The previous owner is not entitled to anything that no longer belong to him/her.

No, i do not agree and here is why.

The original owner of the property has ample opportunity to check their property, before selling it. just about everyone has a computer or access to one, in order to check the value of their property, before selling it.

I will admit, there are people out there that do not have a clue as to the value of their property. like the saying goes, “one mans junk is another mans treasure”. with so many yard and garage sales in America, i believe most people just want that easy money in their hands, rather than check the value of their property before selling. i would not agree to this, IF a person did not have the opportunity to check values, before selling.

Wife and i bottle dig, with permission. i discovered the very first glass whiskey bottle produced by Jack Daniels Distillery. it was located underneath an old torn down house near the Civil War Battlefied in Tennessee. i had no idea of the value of this bottle, until someone on ebay offerd me $180 dollars for it. in this situation, who would i have contacted? the owner did not care and Jack Daniels already has enough money.

No, you are not required to go back to the previous owner. It is Seller Beware as far as setting a price.

The original owner of the property has ample opportunity to check their property, before selling it. just about everyone has a computer or access to one, in order to check the value of their property, before selling it.

Absolutely.

In most of the situations that you mention your right. But what if in the above situation the seller was an old woman who was selling her property in desperation? Or someone who lacks the necessary intellegence to research an items proper worth? Everyone has made various assumptions, but I don’t believe gotten to the crux of the matter. In the above question the value was CLEARLY far and above twenty dollars, any contract should always be between two people of sound mind, wouldn’t splitting the profits be a more equitable situation for all parties?

If you are at a yard sale you are clearly not dealing with a professional(always exceptions) so aren’t you in essence switching price tags without the clerk knowing?

My own personal ethics would require that I at least talk to the owner about the possible value of the item before I buy it.

In the example from @jca I actually did something like that. I saw an antique table in the trash. I went to the door and asked them if they were aware it might have some value. They took the table back inside, and I later saw it at their yard sale with a $500 price tag on it. The table was worth around $1,000 to a collector.

Simply put it. You sell something. You better find out what it is worth before putting a price tag on it. IF you don’t do that you can’t complain.

That depends. If he bought the chair fair and square for $20, it’s his chair. If he then sells it for $10000, there’s nothing immoral about that.

That’s just how the market works. Personally, I would probably go back and give them what I deem to be a fair price afterward, but I don’t think there is anything inherently immoral about buying low and selling high. The sellers willingly sell, anyway. They aren’t forced to sell their stuff.