Speaker deal

Early on a gloomy friday afternoon, after finishing my classes and ready for the wild weekend ahead, I decided to treat myself to McDonalds, a fine treat. After ordering an assortment of delicious chicken mcnuggets for 99 cents each I was feel quite adventurous. I walked through the parking lot and these 2 men called me over to their Jeep.

“Hey man do you want to buy some speakers?” a box of speakers sat in their trunk. Immediately I thought, I don’t really need speakers and this is a bit shady.

“It’s our last set, we had an overshipment and have to get rid of them.” they quickly mentioned.

I was intrigued, a bargaining situation had presented itself nicely. You see during this time I had been playing a game that required a lot of calculation in terms of whether something was a profitable. So I put on my best negotiation face and let out a quick “How much?” uninterestedly. The smile grew big on their faces, they knew they caught a live one.

“We are trying to get rid of it as quickly as we can, we have to go back to the warehouse and they will just put it back in the inventory, anything we can get for it is better than nothing, they are worth $2000. What sounds good to you?” they said.

Ah trying to play hardball I see? Not giving the first bit of information on how much they will sell for?

I started to walk away.

“Come on man, these speakers are worth $2000, they accidently gave us the wrong amount, they will just re-stock them if we take them back. How does $300 sound?”

The first price is always the suckers price. It was time to put on my big boy pants. After pondering I said “That sounds a bit pricy…how about $150?”

“Come on man, they are worth $2000, we can’t sell them for that low.”

My next move was crucial, I had to figure out the best counter price. I shoulda stood firm, I was a fool. “Alright $200 sounds fair.”

Crucial mistake. They knew I was no longer an immovable force, and even worse, that I was truly interested.

“We can let em go for $250, no less.” They went in for the kill, only a $50 dollar discount.

I started thinking about the $2000 price tag, it even said on the box. I don’t know shit about speakers, what was I doing? I felt like there was a deal at hand, maybe I could sell them for even more in the future, otherwise they would be decent speakers to have in the house.

The price they offered was a bit steep for my blood, I started to walk, but they called me back again pleading that they had to take it back no matter what, so at least we would both benefit. Then luck was on their side…it started raining.

We had to conclude the negotiations so they said “It’s a fair deal, come inside the car we can take you to the ATM, its raining cats and dogs out here.” Dogs alright.

I knew I shouldn’t get into the car, but it was raining, a deal was at hand. But they are strangers I don’t know anything about them. I always thought in the movies, you should hold the locks so you can easily get out of a strangers car. As I took a seat in the car, to my horror the locks had been scraped out, like someone took a screwdriver to them. “Oh God, I’m fucked.” was all I could think. There’s two of them, probably of similar strength. I don’ t think I could take them both on at the same time, what if they have weapons? I’m truly screwed.

“There’s an ATM up the street I can get the money there.” I quickly mentioned. I didn’t even state an amount, anything to get us moving and them thinking they were 1 step closer to payday. All I could think about was how incredibly stupid I was. I fell for the good ole Candy Van tactic, even at the wise age of 20.

As we got to the ATM that I never use (because of the high fees) I withdrew $250 in the pouring rain. I just wanted to get home, emotions were flustered, I was happy I even made it out of that car. I quickly handed him the money and got my speakers. They then offered me a ride home, I quickly refused and started heading off. In the background they started laughing “He thinks we are a bunch of weirdos!”

Once I got home we plugged them in and they sounded funny. Pur-tone was the name of the brand. We quickly Googled to find out it was a classic scam. But I was happy because I had my life and will never make that same mistake again.