No matter what reason was given for the forced sale, the householder remembered that he was shortly to make a huge profit on his own carpets and imagined that if he bought more he could either (a) use them to replace those he expected to sell, or (more usually) (b) sell them to the firm which had undertaken to purchase from him and whose price list he had to carefully studied. The price asked was always much lower than that offered by Messrs. Blank and Company, and the householder, believing the goods to be as described by the sellers and scenting big profits, fell a ready victim. Nothing more would be heard of these sellers and subsequent enquiry showed Messrs. Blank and Company to be non-existent.
N the householder's purchases were confined to obtaining sufficient carpets to replace those which he thought he had sold, his loss was not heavy true it was that he had paid for the goods a price far above their value, and he did not really want them, for his original ones remained in his possession; but he had only bought a few pieces. But where the tricksters succeeded in arousing in the householder's mind the thought that here was a golden opportunity to make money quickly by buying carpets to sell to Messrs, Blank and Company, he would make heavy purchases, spending far more money than he could afford, sometimes even borrowing to make up the amount required. In a case which happened about four years ago a lady paid £80 for two rugs which subsequent valuation showed to be worth not more than £2126.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.