Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1921-12-01
4SIGHT UNSEEN"
TRADE IS GAMBLE
Consumer Takes Long Chance
When He Buys From the
Mail Order House.
GENERALLY IS LOSING GAME
Method of Doing Business Is Very
Different When You Purchase
Goods From Your Home
Merchant.
(Copyright.)

(Copyright)
When you were youngster, did you
ever make trade, sight unseen?"
Of course you did. What boy has not
risked his jackknife or his choicestmar-
bic on such proposition and how oft
en- has he repented of his rash deed
! when he discovered what he got in the
trade? He generally found that the
deal turned out to the advantage of
the. one who made the proposition.
There is little of the gambling in
stinct in the blood CT nearly every man,
woman and child, but even the hard
ened gambler likes to get run for
his money" The "sight unseen prop
Osition doesn't appeal to him in the
least. There are thousands of people,
however, who would be properly indig-
nant if they were accused of being
gamblers, who every day take chance
on the greatest gambling game in the
world. And worse than that, they are
risking their money on a "sight I'M
seen" proposition.
| When one of the thousands of per-
sons who build up and keep up the
great mail order houses of the country
sends his money away to pay for some
article that he has selected from the
mail order catalogue, he is taking a
chance on getting what he expects to
| get. The mail order house may be
| perfectly honest and still the purchas-
er stands a good chance of not get.
| ting what he expects to get. The mail
order catalogues are filed with pic
lures that catch the eye. The de-
scriptions are brief, as they must be
when thousands of articles are to be
described within the confines of one
book. No matter how hard the mail
order house might try to tell the truth,
the whole truth and nothing but the
truth, it would be an impossibility.
The buyer is simply taking chance.
Buying "sieht Unseen"
How much more satisfactory it is
to walk into store in your home town
and ask to see an article which you
may have seen advertised in your
home paper. What would anyone
think of your business ability or your
common sense if you walked into a
store at home and said: II saw a
| picture in the paper today Of a suit
which liked very much. Please wrap
up one for me. Here's the money
The merchant would think that you
were crazy, but that is exactly what
you do every time you send an order
to mail order house. You buy "sight
unseen" and you haven't ghost of a
chance of getting your money back if
the article is unsatisfactory when it
reaches you.
How different is the proceeding
when you go into the store in your
own home town to buy a suit Of
clothes, or stove or yard of ribbon.
You may have seen picture of it in
the merchants advertisement in the
home paper and you know that, as the
merchant is reliable, you can count on
the goods being as he represents them
in his advertisement. But does he ask
you to take his word for everything
Does he hide the article behind the
counter and tell you that you can't
even see it until you buy it and pay
| over the money for it? Hardly. If
| the article is not already in plain sight
| on the counter, the merchant produces
| it for your inspection. If it does not
| exactly suit you, he has others that
are little different and that he is glad
| to have you inspect.
Get Merchants Guarantee.
Then, if it is a suit of clothes you
| are buying, or piece of dress goods
or a pair Of socks, you may ask if the
merchant will guarantee that it will
wear as long as an article of that kind
| could be expected to wear and he will
tell you either that he will guarantee
| it or that he will not. If he tells you
| that he will guarantee it you will know
| that you will get your money back or
| another suit or another pair of socks
| in it's place if it doesn't wear like 1t
should for the merchant, besides be-
| ing an honest man in most cases, can
| not afford not to make his word good.
He is dependent upon your business
| and that of others in his own commu-
nifty and he cannot afford to misrepre-
sent his goods.
After having all this opportunity to
see what you are buying, you take your
suit or your stove or whatever 1t is
| you buy home or it is sent home for
you without any delivery charges, and
after you get home and take another
look at it and decide you don't want
it after all, you send it back.
You are not buying something "sight
unseen" when you buy from your home
merchant. You don't look at picture
OF an article in a newspaper, read a
short description of it, go to the post
Office and buy a money order and send
it to the merchant with the instruc'
tons, "Send me a suit of clothes'.-or
stove or whatever it may be-"and
I'll pay your delivery man 90 cents Tor
delivering it to me-"
There's a world of difference in the