Did I pass up a big opportunity?

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brownsfn2

brownsfn2

Member
Joined
Jun 23, 2011
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Location
Plain City, OH
This guy calls me out of the blue from the phone number on my website. He said he wants to buy my pens at wholesale and then resell to the city of New York. He claims he is around CEOs, Investors, Sports agents, etc. etc. all day and could make a lot of money reselling pens. He wants to buy some of my $80 pens for $35 at wholesale 10 at a time and could be much more.

He had broken English and I thought it was fishy at first. I said this was a hobby for me and I did not know if I could do that kind of volume. He then asked me for samples and alarm bells started going off. I said I don't think I am interested. Then he started to press me for the hard sell. He used words like "come on man" and "don't you want to make money?" Then I suggested a few other penmakers websites and said that they do much more volume then I do. Then he said "i like your pens, don't you want to make some money, come on". He pressed further for a few minutes and I kindly exited the conversation and thanks him for his interest.

First time this has happened and it seemed really wierd to me. There are so many pen makers on the internet that you would think he would have dropped it and called someone else.

I guess my Dad taught me that if it seems to good to be true it probably is. ;)
 
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My wife sells avon and Thirty One, and when she set up her site for each one she would get emails from people asking her to order stuff, send it to them and they will send her a money order. Well she would figure out the total, send them a bill (plus 10 bucks shipping) and for some reason she would not hear from them again.
 
brownsfn2 said:
This guy calls me out of the blue from the phone number on my website. He said he wants to buy my pens at wholesale and then resell to the city of New York. He claims he is around CEOs, Investors, Sports agents, etc. etc. all day and could make a lot of money reselling pens. He wants to buy some of my $80 pens for $35 at wholesale 10 at a time and could be much more.

He had broken English and I thought it was fishy at first. I said this was a hobby for me and I did not know if I could do that kind of volume. He then asked me for samples and alarm bells started going off. I said I don't think I am interested. Then he started to press me for the hard sell. He used words like "come on man" and "don't you want to make money?" Then I suggested a few other penmakers websites and said that they do much more volume then I do. Then he said "i like your pens, don't you want to make some money, come on". He pressed further for a few minutes and I kindly exited the conversation and thanks him for his interest.

First time this has happened and it seemed really wierd to me. There are so many pen makers on the internet that you would think he would have dropped it and called someone else.

I guess my Dad taught me that if it seems to good to be true it probably is. ;)
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That happened to me last year as well. Guy emailed me from Montreal QC and told me he was involved with a lot of local businessmen and wanted to order a bunch of pens as gifts for them. He then wanted samples of each one and engraved so he could see how they look. Soon as I told him I wanted money up front, never heard from him again.

With the amount of trusting crafters out there, even if he got a few from a small percent of them, that would add up to a LOT of pens for him to resell or collect..
 
Some people are scum, and I often wonder if they get some folks to actually fall for it. If you had caller ID you might forward his number to the authorities. I am sure there is fraud hot line somewhere.
 
You passed up a huge opportunity....to send him some samples and never hear from him again. Watch out for the guy who claims to have access to bats broken and/or used by Mickey Mantle. He claims to be a personal friend of family members and has a deal with them to have pens made from the bats and sell them with certificates of authenticity. Oh, and yes, he still has my samples.:mad: Fool me once-shame on you...fool me twice-shame on me. He is the only one shamed. Learn from us!
Do a good turn daily!
Don
 
The name "Nigerian 419 Scam" is a nick-name for an Advance Payment scam. In this case, the advance payment would have been some of your hard work down the drain. You did the right thing, although I would have hung up sooner.
 
Hehehe...John, can I use that second line?
I just may put that on my answering machine.

This is one of the primary reasons we let the answering machine screen our calls.
 
walshjp17 said:
The name "Nigerian 419 Scam" is a nick-name for an Advance Payment scam. In this case, the advance payment would have been some of your hard work down the drain. You did the right thing, although I would have hung up sooner.
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419 is actually the criminal code in Nigeria referring to the various scams from that country.
 
What a kind and generous offer to purchase your pens for less than half of your price.:rolleyes:

Did he offer to sell you $20 bills for $50?:clown:


I would be happy to buy your pens for $35, too. They look very nice.:smile:
 
WHAT!!!!

edicehouse said:
My wife sells avon and Thirty One, and when she set up her site for each one she would get emails from people asking her to order stuff, send it to them and they will send her a money order. Well she would figure out the total, send them a bill (plus 10 bucks shipping) and for some reason she would not hear from them again.
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Hey ED! She did graduate kindergarden did'nt she ??? LOL
 
I feel better about it now. I hope no one else falls for this. The more I think about it the more I think he was just trying to get a couple of pens for free.
 
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