Saysold,

You gave some good examples of puffery, and indeed a salesman is not required to give any information he or she may know. In your second example, the realtor is predicting the future, something the law clearly recognizes as puffery since everyone SHOULD know that's impossible.

That information can aslo be colored with opinion (if that's clear what it is)... "a great tiem to buy" is just that, an opinion. There is no factual information there. Another common dodge is to qualify.... 'this programe can save you up to 25%". That isn't saying ti WILL save you that much, just that it can. As long as the salesman can point to one example where it did, he's pretty much in the clear.

HOWEVER information the salesman chooses to give, that is material to the sale, is required by law to be factual to the best of his or her knowledge. (An example of information NOT material to the sale is "I have 6 kids to feed...") To violate that is to commit fraud.

SO if this guy can show at least one place you would pay $60.00 for this deck, he's probably in the clear. if he said "you could pay up to $40.00 for this deck" and can show that legitimate vendor at that price he is definitely in the clear. If not, as I understand the law, its fraud. Pretty fraud, but still fraud.

Awhile back when my wife and I were looking at building our own house we became dealers for a panelized home systems company. They drilled the "up to..." phrase into our heads during sales training.

Buyer beware is best advice

A guy was pitching a Svengali deck of cards.........so what?

How do you know that the exact deck he was selling didn't sell elsewhere for $40.00?

Perhaps he made them himself, on his own papercutter, with un-rerounded corners.......and perhaps he (as a result of his labor) he decided to set a retail price of $40.00 on each and every deck that he made.

Now perhaps he decides to sell his decks at the sale price of $20.00...........no harm-no foul.

In other words, the OP made a point about something he didn't understand (pitching Svengali decks), and some folks here picked up the ball and made a non-issue into a completely false issue.

Here's a tip, guys who make their own Svengali decks and then pitch them for $20.00 could say that they were worth $100.00 and it wouldn't be incorrect............you don't even have to introduce your own labor, you could also add value through "teaching" a trick or two.........you can then add that "value" to your Svengali deck at whatever price point you want..........you can also sell it at whatever price you want to sell it at..........and you can discount it from your $100.00 retail price however you see fit to.

You could quite legally say "this very deck would sell for $100.00 anywhere else, but today I'm going to sell it to you for $20.00".

It's called pitching........and it applies to potato peelers, pocket fisherman, graters, sponge towels, and 100's of other items that get pitched on a regular basis, but don't result in long threads on topical forums from folks aghast that somebody tried to pitch them something.

There's nothing illegal, immoral, or fattening about pitching products to those who might be a bit too thick to realize that they might actually be better off shopping around for something rather than buying it from somebody on TV, behind a stand in a grocery store..........or in a Magic Museum.

Pitching Svengali decks is a time-honored tradition.

I'm so glad that at least a few people understand free enterprise. He can sell the decks for any price that he wants. If his price is too low he won't make a profit. If it is too high he won't move his product.

No one should lie but as others have pointed out Svengali decks HAVE been sold for high prices.

If you see a guy floating a spinning card at an airport and buy it for $50 and then go home and find it on the internet for $10 you have not been ripped off. You saw it and you wanted it and you and the seller agreed on the price.

I well understand free enterprise, being the CTO of two companies.

I also understand consumer protection law.

IF this is a literal quote than even if he could show it being sold SOMEWHERE for 40 dollars, he still committed fraud because he claimed that EVERYWHERE its 40 dollars. And this is easily provable false. And its something he should know is false seeing as a retail products are sold to dealers with a "suggested retail price.,"

Don't get confused. The issue is not his price, which he is free to set wherever he wants. The issue is his claim about others' prices, which is false and arguably a key motivator in the sale.

Watch infomercials sometime and note how careful and deliberate their wording is. They never say "you WOULD pay.." they say "you COULD pay..." or occassionally, if they have the fact to back it up "products LIKE this have sold for..."

Theres a big differrence.

I guess the next step then is to go ahead and offer up the proof that the guy made any such statement.

We'll wait while that evidence is presented..............