On Tue, 1 May 2007, Todd, KA1KAQ wrote:
I had a similar experience years ago at the Milton hamfest. Mike, W1RC
wrote about the event on the original boatanchors list back when it
happened. I was asking about the price of a Collins KWM-2A that a
fellow had for sale. He responded, and as he did, one of the flippers
in attendance reached around me, grabbing the rig and saying "I'll
take it".
It bothered Mike a lot more than it did me at the time, he was
downright angry. It was indeed rude and unnecessay behavior. And yes -
what goes around, comes around, and he lost out later for all to see.
40 years of participation in swapmeets, hamfests, the electronic surplus
business and of course eBay... I have had this exact situation happen to
me more than once, on both sides of the folding table. My response as a
seller, to the 'interloper' would be a smile and a polite "Well, sir, this
gentleman [Todd] has fist crack at it - if he passes on the rig, you're
next.." all the while thinking the same things you've mentioned about
manners and breeding and common courtesy. Failing this kind of 'control' -
the situation spins into this type of 'predatory' buying.
An anecdote - I usually take boxes of "Junque" and put a price on each
box... $1, $3, $5... depending on the contents. Once I had a box marked
"Everything in this box - $1". People would paw around in it and
occasionally find a treasure or two... towards the end of the meet a
'Gentleman' handed me a dollar bill (I was busy with a few other
customers) and then out of the corner of my eye I saw him pick up the
whole box and walk away with it.
Of course I stopped him, whereupon he became quite irate and insisted
that he'd simply complied with my advertising. So I gave him his dollar
back, which he tried to refuse - I rather forcibly reclaimed my box of
Junque - then he went over to the swapmeet organizers to complain.
When they heard the whole story, they threw him off the lot. ;}
And now I write "Each ITEM in this box - $1" sigh....
Slightly off the current topic, but it goes to show it "takes all
kinds"..
Cheers
John
KB6SCO
DM09fg
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