Tuesday, February 20, 2007

Gullibility clearly knows no bounds

Here are the links to four sites that sell what can only be described as "things that shouldn't be for sale or that noboby in their right mind would buy". In other words, sites selling the impossible or selling things that don't belong to them or that don't actually belong to anyone.

But clearly that view is not held by the majority as these products seem to sell very well.
And I must congratulate the people who came up with the ideas to sell what I thought, up to about five years ago, couldn't be sold.

Because it was about five years ago when I first heard of the business idea to sell the right to name a star for a loved one i.e. one of those sparkly things out in space. And having bought that right it would be your star forevermore for the reasonable price of about 20 quid, what a romantic present! (see link two)

Hang on I thought. Surely no one is that gullible that they're going to pay 20 notes to get a framed certificate saying they've named a star for their loved one, and that it's now offically their star...surely no one is going to fall for this snake oil con? Well I was wrong, there are plenty of people who have "bought" the "right" to name stars.


Then on Sunday night while lying in bed listening to the London based radio channel Talksport, I heard an interview with the young American man who recently came up with the idea to sell minutes in time (see link one). He was asked how much "time" he has sold so far and his reply was "Well, so far we've sold over 100,000 minutes at a dollar a piece" Ka-ching! How to make money selling the impossible due to the vanity and gullibility of certain people, well in this case over 100,000 people...so far!!!!


And now we come to snake oil operation number three the "bottled atmosphere" con (see link three). Basically you buy the "atmosphere capture kit" for a fiver (which is just an empty bottle) and you fill it with whatever sample of air you want, for example, open it at your wedding, or child's Christening and capture the atmosphere there..... okaaay! Surely no one... WRONG! ...people are buying it!

Then one that's actually been around for quite a while, bottled oxygen, (see link four) mostly it would seem being bought by sports stars and supermodels, if their advertising is to be believed, who just can't make it through the day without a hit of pure oxygen.... at 12 quid a pop!

Gullible? Not me! Although I did once buy a Ford Scorpio... hhmm...once bitten, twice shy.

Well, what's next I wonder?

Name my child auctions
Sort through my household rubbish for a dollar
Use my garden and pool for a pound an hour.....actually....nah!


Link one:

http://www.taketime.com/


Link two:

http://www.starlistings.co.uk/

Link three:

http://www.bottledatmosphere.co.uk/index.asp?ID=1

Link four:

http://www.wow-gifts.co.uk/oxygen.html

5 comments:

Liam G said...

Ace blog, James but if you think they're off the wall, check this out:
http://cgi.ebay.com.au/New-Life-for-Sale_W0QQitemZ110078904033QQihZ001QQcategoryZ324QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

James said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
James said...

Thanks Liam,

Regarding that "buy a life", is that a publicity stunt do you think, just to make the documentary they mention?

BTW, have you had a look at the "In Photos" blog I've linked, some great stuff on there.

The old fella with the pipe is my current favourite

Kim Jong Il said...

En annan grej som bara måste vara fejk och dumheter är ju www.mystar.se. Eller så är det inte fejk, men det är ändå en jävligt korkad sak att köpa...

James said...

Jag detta är löjligt eller hur. Hur fan kan folk tro att de har nån sorts rätt till en stjärna! Håller med dig kungen korkad som fan.