[TheForge] Post Vise Craziness OT

[Andrew Vida]

Chris Kilpatrick wrote:
> So Craig,
>      Is it your contention that we have to be as knowledgeable or more knowledgeable about EVERYTHING we purchase, than the person selling the thing?  That would make everything a seller's market.  I am for free enterprise, and I am a salesman, but having only the salesman setting the price????
> 
	I believe there is supposed to be a balance between "caveat emptor" and 
"caveat vendor".  I should ba able to ask any amount for what I have to 
sell.  OTOH, I should not be allowed to commit fraud.

	If you read the hammer listing carefully, the seller is very careful 
not to say anything that could be construed as fradulent.  He is careful 
to couch his description in truth that seems to me to be designed to 
mislead the unthinking prospective buyer.  He relates a yarn of grand 
dad blacksmiths forging and repairing iron for the intrepid Mormon 
settlers, but is careful to state that this is what was told to him and 
that he has no way of knowing if it's true an a buyer probably has no 
way to verify whether this is in fact true.  He basically admits that he 
doesn't know anything about the tools, but this doesn't slow him down a 
beat.  Balls of brass are a requirement for good scamming, no?

	I don't like this kind of chicanery, but in the end it is my 
responsibility to educate myself and then decide whether to buy.  In 
this case, his wording is very careful but nevertheless unskillful. 
Anyone with an open eye and rudimentary reasoning skills should smell a 
rat, even if they know nothing about the items that are offered for 
sale.  The fact that nearly every statement is qualified so as to 
deflect any culpability from him should be a big, high-flying, magnesium 
flare cutting through the pitch black night sky.