Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Obviously Underpriced

Man walks in from one of the 25 charity shops in town.

"I have a book here, that i think is rather valuable. What do you think it's worth"

"I would sell it for £10"

"Oh no - we can demand far far more than that for it"

and sweeps out.

Nice to be asked I suppose ?

George Bernard Bu******

Chap walks in. "I'm looking for a copy of George Bernard Shaw's "The Apple Cart - I don't suppose you've heard of it."

"Yes sir, I believe we have a copy in our plays section."

"Really, how marvellous - its out of print, and I've hunted high and low for it. How much is it"

"It's a first edition sir, from 1920, in a decent dust wrapper - it's £6"

"Oh no - I don't want to pay anything near that - do you have anything for a pound ?"

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The Letter of the Law

I had a letter from my landlords yesterday. I can't quote it exactly as I threw it away in disgust (DOH) but I can give you the gist of it.

Please to remember that this comes on expensive embossed paper, and had a first class (38p) stamp on it.

"Dear Sir,
Thank you for your recent rent payment of £761.17 for the month of March. Unfortunately you made a mistake in calculating the final monthly payment of the year, and you owe us an addional 4p. Please could you send us this and bare (sic) in mind that the amount is £761.21 in future payments."

This, from someone who signs herself with the Full "Ba Hons, (Lancaster)" on all letter - to show how intelligent and well educated she is.

With headed paper at 10p - laser printing at 15p per sheet, 10 mins on minimum wage at £1.25 and the stamp at 38p - this cost them at least £1.88 to ask for 10p.

Needless to say - I shan't be sending a cheque. Yes - I know I have wasted almost as much time as they did on this topic - but I couldn't resist.