How Much Would You Pay?

“If you couldn’t guarantee the authenticity of an item where authenticity strongly determines its value and there is no return or refund policy offered, how much would you be willing to pay for it?”

For me, the answer is, “As much money as I could afford to lose should the item prove to be a fake.”

That said, a while back, I was unexpectedly faced with a potential chance to acquire two somethings that may or may not have been the genuine collectible articles.

Owing to the fact that there was no surefire way to determine the items’ authenticity and in the extremely short amount of time that was left, I found myself forced to consider the possibility that the items were fake and in doing so, forced myself to set a stop-loss amount on my max bids and in doing that…

Well, I suppose it’s no surprise, then, that I finally lost out on the bid war that ensued.

One hundred, fine. Two hundred for something I couldn’t guarantee the authenticity of much less three hundred plus?

Yeeeaaah… NO.

The way I see it is this: If a questionable item proves to be real then HOORAY because… well… I got the real deal! If the questionable item proves to be fake then BUMMER because… what the heck am I going to do with a fake item?

Add it to my collection?

Pffft, yeah right. What kind of use would I have for a fake when the only thing I am interested in for this particular item is the real deal? I say ‘particular item’ because if the authenticity of the item didn’t really matter to me – and sometimes, it really doesn’t matter, then I very well might just add the item to my collection.

Keep it in the name of science and experimentation?

Oh yeah, sure, if a few hundred bucks was nothing more than a bunch of loose change for me!

Try to sell it and pass it off as the real thing when in reality, it is a worthless knocked off piece of crap?

To be honest, I probably could – I mean, how else do all those knockoff dealers manage to sell so much of their fake stuff to people thinking that they’re buying the real deal? – but that would destroy any and all respect and/or sense of trust people might have in me if they ever learned that I did such a thing and furthermore…

I’m just not that kind of person, period.

Hell, not even a period.

I’m not that kind of a person, exclamation point!

So… yeah.

Based on these thoughts on what I would do if the items would prove to be fake, I set a stop-loss at a number lower than what I would be willing to pay for something that I knew was authentic.

Knowing that I was potentially letting go of something that might have been a great catch, I couldn’t help but wonder – and continue to wonder – what other people might do if placed in the same situation where authenticity is questionable and there is no return or refund policy offered.

Grit their teeth and take the plunge – offering up their absolute max bid in the hopes that the item really is the real deal?

Yank on the reins and enforce a stop-loss amount in the same manner that I did?

Not even bid on the item at all?

I wonder, I wonder…