Gulling the ignorant

[Will Owen <nashwill912@domain.elided>]

In response to two different tales of Alfa-savvy buyers sticking it to
ignorant/uninformed sellers, Alan Lambert asked: "JUST A GENERAL
QUESTION--IS THIS SHREWD, OR IS IT NASTY?"

Fine line there, I'd say. I once pulled a similar number on a
flea-market dealer and got a very rare vintage toaster for $30 instead
of the $60 he was asking (which itself was about a third of its book
value), and felt only glee. If we'd been dealing in thousands of
dollars, however, especially if he'd had that much invested, I think it
would have been a very different matter.

Those of you ancient enough to have seen the Life magazine special
edition on the Great Anchorage Earthquake of 1964 might remember the
cover picture, which showed that subdivision where the ground just came
apart. In the middle of said picture is a red TR4 with a corner of a
house sitting on top of it. Fella we knew named Vern, a guy whose morals
and behavior were so vile that even our lout-ridden sports car club had
kicked him out, happened to be running one of the bulldozers involved in
cleaning that mess up. He asked the TR4's owner, in the kindest way
possible, whether he'd consider selling whatever was left of the car,
and struck a deal for $400. He then deployed the bulldozer to lift the
corner of the house, ever so gently, and then proceeded to DRIVE OUT one
low-mileage, almost-new TR4 with a crumpled windshield and some slightly
abraded paint. And then he put the car on his used-car lot, with copies
of the magazine cover to authenticate its value as an Earthquake
Collectible...I feel safe in suggesting that this is beyond the Pale,
beneath contempt, unworthy of anyone even pretending to be a gentleman,
however you want to put it.

Now (Alfa content): do we want to discuss the b***hole who sold me the
Berlina?

Will Owen
Pasadena, CA
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