BrotherJohnF (also a silver-stacker, but him I still highly respect), who has earlier discussed in an interview with Chris Douane about bitcoin answered (debunked? didn't watch yet) to the Ponzi allegations by Chris in his bitcoinchannel:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CNLSvd4LyP8I once heard a wise man say: Don't talk too much about something you don't know too much about. So if we talk about bitcoin, I can say a lot, but if we talk about a car engine, I keep my mouth fucking shut.
The problem isnt about an idiot couldnt keep his mouth shut.
Its the general public (his followers) whos lazy to do their own research and just take what he said as facts.
It happens everywhere in the world and hence it creates this "cult". Social media is great but its also terrible to public when stupid spreading crap everywhere.
I used to set up at the Lakewood Flea Market in Atlanta next to this guy who became an instant expect on everything once some mundane fact was brought to his attention.
During one show, I thought I would have a little fun at his expense knowing that I would get three days of entertainment value from it, considering he was within earshot of my booth.
He would always bark at the customers if they so much as look at a piece in his booth longer than two seconds.
On day one, he placed toward the front of his booth a handsome Art Deco piece, but priced way too high. I walked up to the piece, picked it up, then studied it, and was surprised he didn't bark at me as he would always do, no matter who the person was. He just watched me. I then asked of him if he knew what he had here. He stood still like a mountain waiting for me to tell him. So I did.
Paraphrased, I said, "What you have here is an Eastlake vase, probably one only about 30,000 produced by the famous Thomas Eastlake, making it a limited edition. You're price looks pretty good, but I would have to double check the price on the internet later."
He immediately said, "I know! I know! I haven't changed the ticket yet. That's the price I paid for it." Amazingly, the guy he brought it from used the same tickets and penning style as his to price the item.
He took the item from me, removing the tag, then placed a new tag on it that was exactly the same kind, and increased the price three fold. I couldn't wait for the fun to start.
Sure enough, within 30 minutes a well-dressed woman walked up to the vase, which now sat on a table by its lonesome at the very front of the booth. She was just approaching it when he barked out virtually all I just told him earlier. She looked at the tag, then turned and walked away. Since she was facing my direction, I saw her roll her eyes.
As she was clearly leaving his booth, he continued to bark at her, even lowering his price, and asking her to make an offer. During the course of the show, I did overhear two people dispute his Eastlake claim, correcting him that it's an Art Deco vase. He didn't want to hear that, for he knew the truth. Besides, he told one them, it's a limited edition. Only 20,000 made, purposely knowing it was a lie, for in his mind the truth was 30K.
Needless to say, at the end of the show he still had it, and even asked me if I wanted to buy at a lower price than the original one. I told him I couldn't because I had a bad show, even though things flew out of my booth and he could clearly see that I had considerably a lot less inventory than when I sat up.
Sorry for the somewhat aside, but this post, and a post above it a tad, somehow reminded me of this story.
~Bruno K~
