They tried to trick me

Over the years people have come up with different tricks in an attempt to cheat me out of some money.

One of them came to buy a sander that was no longer produced and sought-after model with a great reputation. As always, I tested it before posting it and I put a very reasonable price on it.

A guy came over and I plugged it in for him. He listened to it for a minute and then said that the bearings were going out. I knew instantly that he was trying to pull a fast one. There was absolutely nothing wrong with it, he just tried to get me to lower the price.

He didn’t get his way though and I was not in the mood to argue with him either. I told him that I would just put it back in the shed and keep it.

Trying to give me the impression that he was going to walk away from it he went to his car. He opened the door and almost got in when he changed his mind and told me that he would take it after all.

He paid $60 and I’m sure that he was happy with it. The effort to get it for much less didn’t work.

Another ploy that a few people tried was being short of money when they wanted to pay me. Something like: “I thought I had four twenty-dollar bills here, but I seem to have only three.

My response was clear and simple: Go home or to the ATM and get another one. And when they found out that I wasn’t going to accept a lower amount, they suddenly remembered that there was some cash in the car.

One man succeeded in fooling me. He bought a grinder for $15 and emailed me an hour later saying that it didn’t work. I told him to bring it back and I would refund the money.

After he had left I took a good look at the tool to see what was wrong with it and it wasn’t until then that I discovered it was not the same one I had sold him.

Apparently he had a broken one of exactly the same model and switched them. I was not upset about the money, just disappointed that he had to be dishonest, even for such a small amount.

The bottom line is very simple: Be careful when you buy or sell something, unfortunately there are many dishonest people out there.