Today we had eight customers and only one bothered to ring for an appointment. Even he rang before we were open and insisted on coming in at 10 am, before we were really ready for customers.
I’m going to stop answering the phone before we are open.
One of the others wasn’t even wearing a mask. When I asked him to put one on he told me he had one in the car. So I put one on the counter for him, which he ignored. However, as he was moving towards the door as he asked questions we replied and let him back out.
He had a silver Afghani wedding belt and a broken gold Rolex to sell. I looked the wedding belt up on Wikipedia, there’s a lot about Afghan jewellery but not much about the belts. It’s not really our sort of stuff.
Photo by Kirsten Bu00fchne on Pexels.com
We also try to avoid copy Rolex watches, whether broken or not. (If you’d seen him it wouldn’t have entered your mind that it was likely to be genuine either). There are a lot of narrow-faced chancers in our line, and the aura of mendacity lay heavy around him.
Chances are that if it’s a copy it isn’t gold either.
If, by any remote possibility, it is real it’s most likely stolen, and we don’t want that either.
I once bought a stolen item and it can get complicated. It was even more complicated because it was a police helmet and it had disappeared after being knocked of the wearers head in a scuffle in slab square.
It’s not unusual for used police helmets to come on the market, so it didn’t ring any alarm bells at the time. If you search “police helmets” on eBay there are 53 traditional British police helmets on the first two pages alone. That suggests there are about 300 helmets up for sale from the 600 items that come up on the search.
Such was my defence…
Photo by Marianna on Pexels.com
I took the pictures from the Pexels site by searching for British Police. It turned up one useful photo of a British policeman and quite a few of cats – I think they are British Blues.
I’m not surprised there are chancers in your market – partly because there is mendacity everywhere. But when people think they are going to make a tuft sum of money….
I blame all the antiques programmes…
You could be right there….
Great Post. Nice to meet you here thanks to Johnathan. Tried to open that post but it came to this one. No wonder you were so grumpy yesterday. It’s a nusance with navigating all of the computer stuff sometimes. I laughed about the idiot and judging. Visit me sometime.
To be honest, it’s not unusual for me to be grumpy. 🙂 Thanks for visiting.
That’s too funny.. absolutely!
I visited. It’s a fitness blog! Not at all my usual habitat. 🙂
Lol… I rarely write about fitness however.
In that case I will read more. 🙂
Oh good, thanks!
I’ll see you around-:)
🙂
That is an interesting note about the stolen police helmet. Yet get yourself into some real adventures, Simon Quercus! I agree with Laurie, you should write your memoir, and consider a television series based on it. 🙂
🙂 I don’t really have enough material, just a few anecdotes.:-)
I’m reading a book about a rare book being stolen and they arrest the book shop owner who was trying to sell it…does that actually happen?
There are all sorts of stories like that.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1933_double_eagle
The book was eh, and I could bore you with my problems with historical fiction….
I have read a book on the 1993 Double Eagle – if you like coins, theft, conspiracy, hypocrisy and government duplicity it’s a good read. If you don’t, it’s probably very boring…
Sort of like 2020 without coins…
🙂 🙂 🙂
How vulnerable you are to chancers. The customer is not always right.
Wise words. 🙂
Oh, shoot, Quercus! My life is a pale, bland thing compared to yours. You need to write a book that will then be turned into a television series.
It’s not been that interesting – I don’t think it would justify a book, maqybe just a footnote…
You are too modest.
I have a lot to be modest about.
I didn’t realise that there was a brisk market in police helmets. I learn a lot from you.
There is a lot to learn – how about this?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/objects/GpkvJYZoRu2nauoHDVu8YQ
I listened to a lot of the programmes about the history of the world in 100 objects. They were interesting.
I’ve looked at similar books – always fascinating.