NationStates Jolt Archive

Imagine you are sauntering along your local shopping thoroughfare contemplating a bit of Chrismas shopping, when perchance a sign catches your eye Playstation 3s for £70 - that is less than a quarter of the normal price. Now you think to yourself little Quentin your nephew would love a PS3 and at that price it would be a bargain. So you squeeze past the two rather large gentlemen at the door and pay a £5 entrance fee to find yourself in a shop where an auction is taking place. People are bidding to win these games machines and lo they seem to win the lots at about £70, which is good as there piles of them in boxes, enough for everyone. As the proud winner goes up and pays their £70 they are handed their cherished PS3 in a black bag and told not to open it until they have left the shop...

Now would you bid on one of these machines?

Well would you risk missing this opportunity (http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Rip-mock-auction-shop-closed/article-541198-detail/article.html)

Imagine you are sauntering along your local shopping thoroughfare contemplating a bit of Chrismas shopping, when perchance a sign catches your eye Playstation 3s for £70 - that is less than a quarter of the normal price. Now you think to yourself little Quentin your nephew would love a PS3 and at that price it would be a bargain. So you squeeze past the two rather large gentlemen at the door and pay a £5 entrance fee to find yourself in a shop where an auction is taking place. People are bidding to win these games machines and lo they seem to win the lots at about £70, which is good as there piles of them in boxes, enough for everyone. As the proud winner goes up and pays their £70 they are handed their cherished PS3 in a black bag and told not to open it until they have left the shop...

Now would you bid on one of these machines?

Well would you risk missing this opportunity (http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/news/Rip-mock-auction-shop-closed/article-541198-detail/article.html)

depending on how the ad was worded would tell me to nibble or ignore.

"GAME SYSTEMS starting at £70" does not promise a PS3 or 360 or what not. even if they show a pic of a PS3 or what not.

there is a wholesale event every so often here. and they once advertised Games for Nintendo, Playstation, and PC. so people naturally think PS2, GameCube and the latest games when it's actually a PS1 game, and NES games and PC games that run on DOS. but it's not illegal since they never specified which systems. (no complaints since I found an NES game I've been looking for for years and paid $5 for it. :p

btw... nothing stopping me from calling the cops to investigate the place nor from standing outside with a bull horn proclaiming the 'truth' about what they are buying. and who knows. those alternative systems might be better in my opinion...

To me the bouncers on the door would have screamed 'this is a con'.

so its a bit like ebay?

Now would you bid on one of these machines?
No way. I saw something like this on The Real Hustle.

I just wish I'd thought of this first.

Reminds me of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_a6lxiB1b_I&feature=channel

I was in Tokyo once with friends, in one of the smarter districts like Shinjuku and we came to a bar where the door was closed, there was an entrance fee and two bouncers.

So we tried the usual cajoling - we just want to see what it's like inside - but they said just listen at the door, you can tell it's packed.

So we did, and indeed there was music and chatter and laughter so we paid whatever the fee was only to find an empty place inside with loud music and staff at the booth by the door talking and laughing loudly.

Nice one assholes - I think our guard was let down because we thought Japan was so polite.

Hold on...

... I cannot see what they place in the bag? I am not allowed to open the bag inside the shop? There are bouncers who will not let me in again once I left?

I pity those who fell for that - not mainly for their having been ripped off, but for their apparently sub-standard intelligence.

Hold on...

... I cannot see what they place in the bag? I am not allowed to open the bag inside the shop? There are bouncers who will not let me in again once I left?

I pity those who fell for that - not mainly for their having been ripped off, but for their apparently sub-standard intelligence.

Yes that is pretty much what I thought - I really wondered how on earth people could be that stupid.

Yes that is pretty much what I thought - I really wondered how on earth people could be that stupid.

One idly wonders whether they might have had to resort to that "bargain" because their funds had been drastically reduced due to having sent off most of their money to a Nigerian Prince recently.

Human stupidity ceased to surprise me a long time ago, but it's nice to know it still holds some amusement value.

so its a bit like ebay?

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/bambam922/ebay-is-cheaper-for-a-reason.jpg

http://media.ebaumsworld.com/picture/bambam922/ebay-is-cheaper-for-a-reason.jpg

I would so take the GB over the PSP.

Oh, that's right, I have an '89 GB and no PSP. And now, if you'll excuse me, FFL2 calls.

waaaait a minute....

upwards of 75 people each day have paid £70 or more for a game machine and when they left the store they found they werent given what they paid for...

and only 14 have complained?

what the fuck? what is wrong with leicestershirers? these assholes should have been arrested on nov 27th.

waaaait a minute....

upwards of 75 people each day have paid £70 or more for a game machine and when they left the store they found they werent given what they paid for...

and only 14 have complained?

what the fuck? what is wrong with leicestershirers? these assholes should have been arrested on nov 27th.

Maybe they were too embarrassed to admit that they had been suckered. It's the Royal Nonesuch Principle.

Maybe they were too embarrassed to admit that they had been suckered. It's the Royal Nonesuch Principle.
yeah thats a reason not to take revenge.

NOT

at least not for every person who purchased on the first day.

Wow... this is almost as stupid as the UAW refusing to take a pay cut to save their jobs.

Wow... this is almost as stupid as the UAW refusing to take a pay cut to save their jobs.

Alas, no thread is safe from being derailed by politics.

UAW Makes Concessions in Bid to Help Automakers (http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,461607,00.html).

waaaait a minute....

upwards of 75 people each day have paid £70 or more for a game machine and when they left the store they found they werent given what they paid for...

and only 14 have complained?

what the fuck? what is wrong with leicestershirers? these assholes should have been arrested on nov 27th.
No, speaking from first hand experience, that pretty much accurately depicts the general level of intelligence in Leicester.

No, speaking from first hand experience, that pretty much accurately depicts the general level of intelligence in Leicester.
wow. thats so ....wrong.

seems to me that for it to work here it would have to be something illegal. like auctioning off blowjobs ...or blow.

People are stupid. Simple as that.

I once had a colleague who bought a laptop bag for 200 Euros. Apparently, some Polish guys started talking to him on a Lidl parking lot, telling him they had to go back to Poland real quick and had to bring as much cash as they could, so they needed to sell the laptop for so little...
He only noticed that the bag was filled with old newpapers when he got home.
If you believe in getting something for no money, you'll soon find youself paying lots of money for nothing.

As the proud winner goes up and pays their £70 they are handed their cherished PS3 in a black bag and told not to open it until they have left the shop...
Why would anyone pay for such a 'deal'?

It's so obviously a scam.

Why would anyone pay for such a 'deal'?

It's so obviously a scam.

Have you heard about the woman losing $ 40 000 when sending money to the Nigerian-email scam?
There's lots of dumb people out there...