“業餘”古董玩家
It is a tiresome habit of many antique dealers to mark their prices in code. Sometimes it is a straightforward substitution of letters for numerals, so that A equals 1, D equals 4, and so on. More often, the letters are given complicated values that make no sense at all to anyone other than the dealer, and so we find that our chest of drawers is clearly marked“XPT.”
What does that mean? Would he accept XOS in cash for a quick sale? Why can’t the rascal mark his prices in dollars and cents like they do at Bloomingdale’s? What is he playing at?
The game is called“matching the price to the customer.”While you have been looking at the chest of drawers, the dealer has been looking at you, and you’re both considering the same question—how much?—from different points of view. Depending on how you’re dressed, how interested you seem to be in buying, and how interested he is in selling, the price might fluctuate significantly. But you’re not to know that. It is one of the dealer’s little secrets.
Don’t let it worry you, because you can play the game, too. Call the man over, and get a price from him. Whatever figure he mentions, brush it aside. No, no, you say. Give me the trade price. (Normally, quite a lot less.)
The dealer will look at you through narrowed eyes. Are you really another dealer, or just a robber in a well-cut suit? You give him a business card and show him your checkbook, and there it is, printed proof: COOPER ANTIQUES, PERIOD FURNITURE, VIEWING BY APPOINTMENT ONLY.
I know a man who has been doing this for years, and he has now completely refurnished his house at special trade prices, even though he’s no more a dealer than my butcher’s dog is. When I asked him if he thought that this was the kind of sharp practice that an unsporting judge might describe as fraudulent misrepresentation, he just grinned. Didn’t I know? Most antiques bounce back and forth between dealers for years before they find places in private homes. All he was doing, in his own small way, was helping to speed up the turnover of stock, giving the dealers the money to go out and buy more antiques from other dealers. The way he saw it, he was doing the entire business a service.