Buying Stolen Speakers & What It Says About Human Psychology

Everyone knows a serious deal hunter. Whether it’s grandma clipping coupons for 17 hours straight on Sunday or it’s your dad buying a pool cover because it’s on sale (you don’t have a pool). We all love a good deal, but; what makes a good deal?

A group of University students at Stamford were strapped for cash. Tuition and their lifestyle, which consisted of beer and parties, had depleted the savings they had amassed over the summer. So they needed cash, and they needed it fast.

One of the marketing students came up with an idea, the guys decided to sell speakers. The group scraped together the last bit of money they had and bought speakers from a local electronic store. They loaded them up in the trunk of their car, drove to a parking lot on campus, and laid down a cheap cardboard sign SPEAKERS FOR SALE.

When a potential customer would approach they would tell them a story. The story was only a few words long, “they fell off the back of a truck”. So students would shell out cold hard cash for the stolen speakers. In the process paying 10–30% more than the electronic store down the street. The customers left happy, thinking that they had just got a great deal on speakers.

This story illustrates a couple key techniques that every shady sales person knows:

• Create urgency: selling out of the trunk of your car suggests that you will not be there for long.
• Create a deal: because they said the speakers were stolen people assumed that they were paying a low price for these products.

Was this ethical? Not really. Did it work? Yes. I’m not suggesting anyone should adopt this plan as some sort of business model, there is no longevity here, the other students would’ve caught on eventually. What I am suggesting is that we question our own buying beliefs and we pause before we reach for our wallet right at the word sale.