gwb123 Posted July 26, 2015 Share #1 Posted July 26, 2015 First, a bit of philosophy... http://www.lifehack.org/articles/uncategorized/7-action-inducing-life-lessons-from-henry-ford.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted July 26, 2015 Author Share #2 Posted July 26, 2015 Every now and then one of our members will be kind enough to share a "Lesson Learned" thread. Usually this includes an item that was misidentified, from the wrong time period, or just an outright doctored up fake or fraud. These are valuable posts. They teach the rest of us what to look out for and things to avoid before we part with our money. Usually the poster is fully aware that they made a mistake, but is generous enough to share it with us. So it was a bit disappointing on a recent thread to see some of the responses. A number of them were on a technical basis, pointing out details that proved the high dollar item was a complete fraud. Those were fine. But there were also a number of "You should have researched this better" or "You need to do your homework before buying something that expensive". Really? The poster already knew this when they posted the item and shared it with the rest of the group! So my question is when I read posts like that is: "How exactly does that help?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted July 26, 2015 Author Share #3 Posted July 26, 2015 Admonitions that the poster "should have known better" only teach the poster that it was not worth their time to share their story. Put yourself in their shoes before posting something like this. I am willing to bet that the vast majority of the members on here have been burned badly at least once in their collecting career. Once you have figured this out, do you really need someone to tell you that you goofed? When I read something like this, it just makes me wonder if their parents sometime in the past gave them the same treatment over "Well, you should have put gas in the car before taking Suzie to the prom!" Gee, thanks Dad... I kinda figured that out on my own! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwb123 Posted July 26, 2015 Author Share #4 Posted July 26, 2015 Take Henry Ford's advice from above. It's fine to enter into a technical discussion that confirms the item is bad, over priced, or misrepresented. It's also fine to recommend books, internet sites, and experts to help the readers learn more about the subject. It is not cool to tell someone who shared their story with us that they "should of" this, or "should of" that. In fact, anytime you start writing the word "should", you need to think of it as an admonishment, and one that you would most likely not welcome if it was aimed at you. We are here to learn... let's all appreciate the people who are helping to make that happen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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