The Little World

Occasionally you encounter a scale model kit that has as its primary characteristic…oddity.

It may be a remarkable rendition, well-moulded, with good instructions and a decent decal sheet, but the basic thing is so strange as to make you, and most of the buying public, shy away. It is the kit that sits on the shelf longer than a dead cockroach.

Reflect that it also sits on the shop’s inventory list just as long, and has gotten there by costing the shop owner money. Capital has been spent and no return has ever come back.

Shake yourself, screw up your courage, and take the box to the counter. Explain that you have seen the thing there for longer than the ice age. Offer to buy it for a quarter of the sticker price. If the owner pales and gasps, increase it to 30%, but no more.

You will be surprised how many shopkeepers make a hasty decision and you can take it home for this price. If it is a really odd item you will be building it experimentally anyway, and you might as well do it with a spirit of adventure.

What the hell.