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havalocyesterday at 5:35 PM5 repliesview on HN

I have an elderly client who sends me links of stuff to buy all the time. One day it's one of these streaming sticks, the next day it's half-price stamps, and I tell her every time, please don't buy this stuff. And yet she does anyway, as if I was almost being mean and saying no just to say no.

So yes, I do want to blame the purchasers of these things, sometimes. To prove her point that her stamps were legitimate, she mailed me a card using one of her half priced (but likely fake) stamps and it made it through!


Replies

Terr_yesterday at 6:30 PM

Perhaps they grew up in a time/environment where "if it was that bad they wouldn't be allowed to advertise it", and they're still using that old calibration?

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rrr_oh_manyesterday at 9:26 PM

What is your line of work, if I may ask?

floamyesterday at 7:54 PM

Half priced stamps work though, and nobody is going to prosecute grandma for counterfeiting postage stamps.

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mmoossyesterday at 9:23 PM

> half-price stamps

Who is selling half-price stamps?

#1 How big is your potential market? It's people still mailing things from home, who haven't figured out how to do postage on their computer.

#2 Of the population in #1, it's those who find real stamps so expensive that it's worth bothering with discounts.

#3 Of the population in #2, it's those who would want to buy something fraudulant (or not know better) and who would want to risk using it.

#4 Considering the size of the #3 population, how many stamps do they use in a month?

#5 What is your margin on a half-price stamp? You have to pay for advertising, printing (we're talking a profit margin under $1), packaging, and your own time, but at least shipping is free!

Scroll_Sweyesterday at 7:34 PM

Then again I used to torrent everything under the sun and it actually rocks to have every tv show, movie, game ever released for free forever.

So is it greed? Yes, but I did it too so now that its more accessible I cannot really blame people.