UPDATED 10 September 2012
photo of P T Barnum by Charles Eisenmann
“there’s a customer born every minute”
PT Barnum
The bait
“Theres a sucker born every minute”
I wanted to start off with a quote ‘Theres a sucker born every minute” that is often associated (incorrectly) to PT Barnum. When Barnum’s biographer tried to track down when Barnum had uttered this phrase, all of Barnum’s friends and acquaintances told him it was out of character. Barnum’s credo was more along the lines of “there’s a customer born every minute” – he wanted to find ways to draw new customers in all the time because competition was fierce and people could become bored easily.
Well this certainly happened today on eBay!
Actually, the phrase “there’s a customer born every minute” is more appropriate here because the SAME flask sold four times to willing “Customers” on eBay. Seems like Jeff Noordsy picked up on the scam first (as usual). I received a couple of, “hey look at this emails” but went out to cut the lawn . When I came back, I was flabbergasted to see what had happened. I put together a few screen shots, comparison photographs and links for you to peruse. I’m thinking of Shoeless Joe Jackson and “say it ain’t so Joe” now.
eBay Flask Listing
Antique William Henry Harrison A Extremely Rare Cobalt Blue Flask From 1800’s!!! eBay listing
SCAM ALERT posted on eBay on Sunday
Original Heritage Auctions Flask (in Aqua)
WH Harrison Exceedingly Rare Blown Glass Flask – Heritage Auctions Listing (as represented on Icollector.com)
facebook discussion
Facebook discussion today
Comparison images
WH Harrison Historical Flask. Same flask. Left is the real Aqua example that sold on Heritage Auctions. Right is the fraudulent blue example on eBay.
WH Harrison Historical Flask. Same flask. Left is the real Aqua example that sold on Heritage Auctions. Right is the fraudulent blue example on eBay.
WH Harrison Historical Flask. Same flask. Top is the real Aqua example that sold on Heritage Auctions. Right is the fraudulent blue example on eBay.
Reason number one hundred to buy from reputable dealers!
Well I saw it on Ebay the other night and have to say I was tempted. But the color just didn’t look right; a periwinkle blue. Showed it to Jeanine and she thought it looked weird, unnatural too. Followed my instinct and did not bid…thankfully!
These days I stay away from ebay. I buy from reputable auction houses only.
Fool me once…