Man Tries To Sell Tarted Up Oven Door As $100 HDTV
This $100 flat-screen TV this random dude is selling out of his car in a Walmart parking lot is a steal! Specifically, he is stealing your money by substituting a sticker-covered oven door for a TV.
We have to give this guy credit for going the extra mile and trying to make a realistic decoy-the report says he even included cables in the box-but we wonder if the materials, effort, and risk are really worth $100. If they were HDMI cables from a big box retailer, probably not.
We were going to use this story as a reminder to readers to not buy electronics from the back of a car or van, lest you end up with a box of junk. Then we remembered where most of these stories occur.
37-inch flat screen TV for $100 is really an oven door [The Oakland Tribune]
Thanks, dk!
UPDATE: As a commenter points out, the man was arrested for driving with a suspended license, not for trying to commit fraud. The police did confiscate his oven door/TV, though.
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Comments:
"Psst... Wanna by a new HDTV?"
"Is it hot?"
"Not anymore..."
It's bad enough that most consumers can't tell the difference between high definition and standard. When they can't tell the difference between high definition and an oven door, you know there's no hope left.
I recall reading this somewhere else. Engizmodo perhaps?
Anyway, the guy really went all out, compared to most of the parking lot scam people.
I think the buyer should have been tipped off when the screen cleaner included was Easy-Off.
Does anyone else wonder if they were Monster Cables? B/c if you are going to rip someone off, might as well go for the gold.
Lately I'd rather sit and stare at an oven door than watch what's on TV.
And it only shows the Food Network.
Dude, not cool. You TOTALLY stole my quote I put up when Gizmodo had this story last week:
"Remember folks, the only way to get the best performance from your high-def oven door is to use Monster Cables.
Had he only included them, he could have charged *$200* for that high-def oven door. . ."
Some weaselly looking green guy in a trench coat tried to get me to buy a "Q" the other day. I turned him down; he wanted me to pay extra for the "u." Honestly, how often would I use a "Q" without a "u?"
@techstar25: Amen to that. I'd like to return the money to the all the people in the parking lot who bought the hi-def oven door, then fine each of them $200 for being morons (call it a 'Non-Vigilant Consumer Negligence' fee). Free hi-def remote control sent to those who pay promptly!
From what I can see visiting people's homes... most people don't know the diff between HD and SD on a hi-def TV-- they'll sit there and watch the horizontally distorted SD signal, and when I turn the TV to the same station on HD (buried somewhere on their cable-- cable companies need to do a better job w/this)- they're amazed.
@JGKojak: It truly boggles my mind how many people have no concept of aspect ratio.
(It also boggles my mind how many people think "aspect ratio" and "resolution" are one and the same, and interchangeable.)
Read the article - he wasn't arrested for selling an oven door as a $100 HDTV, he was arrested for driving on a suspended license. Big difference.
Well at least the lucky buyer will be able to use his cellphone as a remote.
@JGKojak:
cable co need to have much better software and lower box costs $8-$10 per HD box and $16-$20 per HD DVR?
at least direct tv get's right same number or number-1 for HD.
@RecordStoreToughGuy_DoesNotHaveAPillowFriend: Buy up the Q's then sell them with astronomically priced I's! 'Qi' is a premium word that can make you a LOT of money.
By the way - I'm offering a fantastic deal on I's, but only to a select few. Offer ends in 11 minutes so hurry...
I have a screen saver on my oven door so that an image of a pot roast doesn't get burned into the screen.
@techstar25: Hey, I resent that! I watched an episode of the "Honeymooners" the other night on my oven door and I never saw Ralph Kramden looking so sharp and clear.
@GitEmSteveDave_TryinToTakeItBack: I've never had to replace the door on my oven before, but it wouldn't surprise me that it would cost more than $100. This may have been a real bargain.
I love the aluminum foil trim... might have to do that to my real HDTV. Maybe that will stop the mind-control signals.
Now I feel the need to go around my apartment and identify what things I can disassemble and sell as other things.
You have to give the would-be criminal props for ingenuity and overall craftsmanship. From the small picture, it doesn't look that far off. I am sure that up close it looks really silly...
I sense a future career as a speaker scammer...
I knew the self-cleaning feature was too good to be true!
@RecordStoreToughGuy_DoesNotHaveAPillowFriend: Would ya like to buy an O??? Round and sweet....
Now that's going to be stuck in my head for the rest of the day!
@RecordStoreToughGuy_DoesNotHaveAPillowFriend: Hrm, I dunno...that guy's song and dance number really shows some effort. I'd suggest tossing a quarter into his case but it'd probably just hit the puppeteer in the head.
(Aside: once I waited patiently for what seemed an eternity while an elderly cashier hunted all over the keyboard for the J key she needed to enter my postal code, and the whole time I wished for that green trench coat dude to come sell her a damned J already.)
@GitEmSteveDave_TryinToTakeItBack:
Yeah, he got a box of monster cables, but when he opened it all he found were coat hangers!
I'm all for lots of government protections where savvy consumers can't be expected to protect themselves - like with lead on toys/dishes/everything or other toxins that those of us without a lab can't be reasonably expected to find. I'm for ingredient listings and all of that stuff that helps those who pay attention to be well-informed consumers.
But even this bleeding heart liberal thinks that if you buy electronics off of the back of a truck, that qualifies as a penalty for being stupid.
@RandaPanda: Quick! Someone tie a piece of buttered bread to the back of a cat and throw them off a building!
Dear lord! Just this afternoon, some guy tried to sell me a wireless speaker/entertainment system in a Walmart parking lot. Claims it was an extra left over from some job or something. Maybe we can start a listing of electronics for sale in Walmart parking lots. LOL!
@shepd: ...but when he hooked them up they looked as good as Monster cables anyway, so no harm done.
This is a common scam (selling speakers, etc. out of a white van in a parking lot) :
Link to wikipedia artice "White Van Speaker Scam" - [en.wikipedia.org]
I can't believe I fell for the old "oven door as an HDTV" trick AGAIN!
@RecordStoreToughGuy_DoesNotHaveAPillowFriend: Clearly he lacks an advanced marketing degree.
Sigh. Give away Q. Sell (at 1.5x premium) U.
My local newspaper in La Porte indiana had a story just last night about 2 guys who hads made flat screen TV's out of plywood and had them shrink wrapped to look like the real thing. The details were sketchy, but it said they would approach people at gas stations when it was dark, and they couldn't really see a lot of detail.
So that's whats wrong with my TV.
The link for the Oakland Tribune article takes you to a consumerist article about Best Buy selling a box of tiles...