Is There a Place For Ethics in Business?

I'm in the middle of moving homes and in the process I'm selling off furniture and miscellaneous items that I don't need or will be replaced with new furniture. For the first time I took advantage of EBay's Kijiji Garage Sale network of buyers and sellers. In one day we were overwhelmed by the responses we received on most of the items. I'm not all that surprised as we did price the items to sell as we would if it was a garage sale taking place in our own driveway. However, it put me in a odd situation. I had people actually offering me more money than I was asking just to make sure that they could have it before the person who had already scheduled to meet me the next day to come and see the items. What should I do? Take the highest offer and cancel the appointment or take the asking price and keep the first scheduled appointment?

I was caught between my entrepreneurial spirit of get as much money as I can or my ethics which is to play fair and keep my first scheduled appointments. What I did was stay with my ethics and kept the appointments and put the others on a wait and see list. For me it was not about the money as we had priced everything to sell so we wouldn't have to move the items. In addition, I have always maintained that a high level of ethics in business will always win out in the long run. Yes, I will lose the battle on occasion and I accept those losses. But in time my word will mean something. Word of mouth advertising travels fast and I want to have the word about me that is being passed around from person to person, business to business to be of a man you can trust and who plays fair. There is something special about still being able to strike a deal with like minded people over a shake of hands.

Is there a place for ethics in business? I not only believe so, I believe it is my 'Unique Selling Point' - my differentiation amongst my perceived competition. How do you feel? Is ethics important to you? Or is win at all costs your mantra?