Sleazebag Spotted Near Liverpool

[Jack Campin]

Somebody trying to rip off a potential seller who doesn't know what they've got:

 

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/109652521/hexagonal-small-button-accordian-squeeze-box.html

 

"WANTED. Small six sided button accordion (sqeeze box) and box.
CASH waiting. I don't mind one that needs a little repair."

 

 

[Dirge]

I think the 'sleazebag' is unfair, Jack. (especially twice!)

 

It could easily be a kid (or muppet) who genuinely doesn't know what he's shopping for.

 

Most likely it is someone who DOES know, but in that case what's wrong with couching the ad to interest someone who doesn't even know what his concertina is actually called?

 

There's no swindle involved in buying something low from someone who doesn't know its value. If he picks up something cheap, well that's capitalism in action. You know as well as I do that any bargain he gets this way will have cost the seller nothing, having found it in Gran'dad's attic or whatever. He gets it out of the mould and dust and back into use. Good luck to him for his enterprise, I say.

 

Why insult him?

[JimLucas]

Somebody trying to rip off a potential seller who doesn't know what they've got:

 

http://www.preloved.co.uk/adverts/show/109652521/hexagonal-small-button-accordian-squeeze-box.html

 

"WANTED. Small six sided button accordion (sqeeze box) and box.

CASH waiting. I don't mind one that needs a little repair."

 

Where in the ad does it say "rip off"?

 

Does it say, "Will pay up to £10"? No. No price is mentioned.

 

No guarantee that this isn't an attempt to get a treasure dirt cheap, but no guarantee that it is. I've occasionally considered placing such ads myself, uncertain as to what I would do if offered a lovely Jeffries for less than 10 pounds (which happened to a lucky friend not long ago). I haven't placed such an ad, but in the meantime I've advised more than one potential seller who came to me for advice that the price they were considering was too low.

 

So I think it's wrong to tar the advertiser without knowing much more about them.

Edited December 14, 2013 by JimLucas

[David Levine]

How do you know that it's a sleazebag trying to rip off a potential seller?

Maybe it's a single working mother with two kids who want to learn.

Maybe it's a teenage kid who doesn't have a lot of dosh.

How would you phrase it if you were looking for a broke-down concertina?

[Ken_Coles]

Duplicate topics merged.

 

Ken

[Frank Edgley]

I came across someone a number of years ago whose tactics I thought questionable. It was a fellow in Toronto who would obtain, on a regular basis, the Salvation Army newsletter. I forget the details exactly, but he would find out the names of very elderly Salvationists, I think from obituaries, contact them, or more properly their surviving spouses, and ask whether they had any old concertinas. If the answer was "Yes," he would go around to their homes/apartments etc. and offer them $25 for their old concertinas. Quite a number of them agreed to the sale. He ended up with several Jeffries, Wheatstones etc. I wondered why I was getting so many concertinas from this fellow to tune, and so I asked him. After I learned what he was doing, I stopped doing work for him. I considered, and still do consider what he was doing as predatory. The elderly Salvationists had no idea of their value, and certainly were not given a fair price. I believe you can give a fair price and still make a reasonable profit. That's what I consider being an entrepreneur. What he represented was "vulture capitalism." This cheap bugger even tried to pay me with stamps, once.

[malcolmbebb]

I have myself placed similar ads.

 

If anything, I was expecting to get one or two el-cheapo German boxes or a beaten up PA to practice repairs. While it's possible to get a decent Wheatstone or Jefferies by this method, the odds are probably National Lottery level.

[Jack Campin]

The advertiser was deliberately trying to keep the owners of the instruments in the dark about what they might have. If he'd said "I'm looking for concertinas (like a small accordion with six or more sides) - do you have one to spare?" a buyer might have been in a better position to find out more. He was lying by omission.

[Wolf Molkentin]

The advertiser was deliberately trying to keep the owners of the instruments in the dark about what they might have. If he'd said "I'm looking for concertinas (like a small accordion with six or more sides) - do you have one to spare?" a buyer might have been in a better position to find out more. He was lying by omission.

 

As to me we don't even know if there had been a deliberate omission at all...

[Wolf Molkentin]

I came across someone a number of years ago whose tactics I thought questionable. It was a fellow in Toronto who would obtain, on a regular basis, the Salvation Army newsletter. I forget the details exactly, but he would find out the names of very elderly Salvationists, I think from obituaries, contact them, or more properly their surviving spouses, and ask whether they had any old concertinas. If the answer was "Yes," he would go around to their homes/apartments etc. and offer them $25 for their old concertinas. Quite a number of them agreed to the sale. He ended up with several Jeffries, Wheatstones etc. I wondered why I was getting so many concertinas from this fellow to tune, and so I asked him. After I learned what he was doing, I stopped doing work for him. I considered, and still do consider what he was doing as predatory. The elderly Salvationists had no idea of their value, and certainly were not given a fair price. I believe you can give a fair price and still make a reasonable profit. That's what I consider being an entrepreneur. What he represented was "vulture capitalism." This cheap bugger even tried to pay me with stamps, once.

 

Well that's really mean due to the intrusiveness of these forays..., he's been creating sort of a confidential setting, and then...