A bit like Dickens' Christmas Carol involving three 'communications', an urban legend I heard as a teenage motobiker ran something like this:
A guy buys a Harley Davidson [HD] and joins the local club giving them the bike's serial number. His details are sent to HD UK. They phone him. "Is that the correct serial number? Have you entered your club details correctly? We'll offer you £20,000 for it". The bike owner said no thanks.
The next day HD Europe rang; "Did you make a mistake when you wrote down that serial number?". They offered £25,000. The main again said no but felt worried he's missed a trick.
The next day HD World HQ rang him: " That Harley you have, do you realise what it is?", "No? Then unclip the seat and there should be a plaque. Read it. Have a chair ready!"
He looked and the plaque read; " To my good friend Elvis from Jimmy Dean". The bike owner sat down!
Out of interest I looked for this legend online and amazingly found tons of references to it. Well I suppose it is a legend!. Here's someone else's version of the story, The World's Coolest Harley.
I have another version of this story. My own. Something like this actually happened to me about 10 years ago!
It started at a Sunday car boot sale in Dewsbury, where I bought a bundle of vintage Sindy doll clothes [ and yes, I sell Action Man clothes as well! ]. I think I paid £2. I got home and sorted through the clothes and listed them on Ebay in lots. Dresses, shirts, trousers and accessories like bags. I put the dresses up first on Ebay on the Thursday, all at 99p starts and left the rest to list on the Saturday when I had more time.
On Friday an ebayer contacted me about one particular lot of dresses. "For £10 would you end the auction?". For £10 I did and the auction was ended. The ebayer then inquired if I had any loose Sindy bags. I said yes and would be listing them soon.
On Saturday morning I had another email but this time from a group representing Sindy collectors in the UK, which went something like " That dresses lot you had on Ebay has gone. Will you be posting it again?"
Curious, I asked my buyer if there was anything special about the dresses he'd bought off me for £10. He said no and asked if I had a silver Sindy bag going spare. I said I might have.
Saturday Evening I got another email, this time from something like Sindy in Europe, which went along the lines of "The other day you listed some Sindy dresses. I don't know if you know but one of them is one of the rarest in the world! If you also have the silver bag that goes with it then they are worth a lot of money". I confirmed that I did.
I was flabbergasted and realised I'd been had but still I felt bound by the sale I'd made. The next day I went back to the car boot sale, like returning to the scene of a crime, to see if there were any more Sindy clothes. I was still cut up about my premature action. I had been going to that car boot sale for years and never found anything of real value before. I was totally cheesed off.
I got home to find another email, this time from Sindy World or similar saying something like " Its Sunday so I assume that you haven't yet posted the dress. Take my advice, relist it, this time with the silver bag, sit back and see what happens". This was the decider so that's what I did.
My buyer was infuriated, I felt bad but I thought he doth protest too much. He was refunded and I listed the two items together and sat back as suggested.
The week went by and the bids came in. The dress and bag I had bought for just part of £2 sold for £250!
They weren't worn by Elvis but its still a good story and this dress definitely left the building!
Great story well worth recounting. I guess we all have had our hits and misses (and those are always best remembered!)
ReplyDeleteJust for the record and out of interest, would you still have a picture of that Sindy outfit?
A story best enjoyed at a cold car boot over a greasy burger!
ReplyDeleteStory. Cold. Meat. Sounds Dickensian. There's more of gravy than the grave here!
ReplyDelete