GetCrafty Craft Facts

Q: I would be asking myself why they were selling it on 'eBay' instead of 'Sotheby's' where there would at least be some research into authenticity. You can't save idiots from themselves, no matter how hard you try. However, this auction does give me some ideas. I have a piece of old cloth that I am convinced is part of the "Shroud of Turin". What do you think my reserve price should be set at?

A: There is a sucker born every minute. This so called bead is like the emperor's cloths. It looks like a plastic bead, and everyone will say how wonderful it is. My God, there really are people out there that have more money than brains. That's pretty darn funny that it's apparently okay to sell an item of dubious authenticity for a large sum of money, but not to sell an article one has written. Why bother with reviewing historical research when spinning a tall tale can be so much more lucrative! Actually, the relationship is not odd - just look at it from the other end. Non-compter-literate people have this great object to sell. Computer literate BIL offers to do him a favor and post it on 'eBay' - not suspicious at all. However, the best thing BIL could have done was to connect him with one of the "real" auction houses - but I bet they take a bigger % than eBay - which may have been the logic here. Both of them are connected in the bead business, it is not strange at all, and they put it on 'eBay', I would imagine, because they sell on 'eBay', and are known there. Good grief, look at the other items being sold there. It is not strange at all. Sorry, it seems I am confusing two of these threads. I thought we were talking about someone else; I don't know this seller. The above message got stuck in my newsreader program for three or four days before being sent. Consequently, the 'eBay' message-posting referred to has slipped down the list of topics. You have to click "Next Topics" on the bottom of the page the link refers to. The message garnered no comments - probably a little too complicated for an audience that just wants to exchange messages along the lines of "What's your favorite color?" But I read it and perhaps a few others did, too, and I learned something about American History.