Posted by Steve Price on March 07, 1999 at 09:23:39:
In Reply to: Re: Would you buy a rug on the Internet? posted by Katharine Hawks on March 07, 1999 at 01:10:46:
Dear Katherine,
I'd add my voice to Michael Wendorf's message in this thread. One all too prominent rug sales technique is gaining the potential buyer's trust by various deceptive statements, explicit or implicit. The terms "con man" and "con game" both derive directly from the use of victim's confidence in the practitioner to successfully mislead. My observation is that misleading statements by vendors about themselves and about rugs being offered on eBay can be seen every day. Some of the misstatements about the rugs appear to simply reflect of knowledge on the vendor's part, since they are without consequence to the rug's value. Others appear to be intentional efforts to persuade buyers that something fairly ordinary is an item of great rarity, hence, great value.
This makes internet auctions especially ddangerous for novices, just as short notice hotel auctions and going out of business sales are, and for pretty much the same reasons.
Steve Price