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To complement our kitchen, which is nowhere near complete yet, we have been looking at adding some higher end and "Finnish recognizable" highlights, which will be the lights over the island and, the stools under it. We have *almost* decided upon what we want and while we haven't settled on the lights yet, we are likely going to get the stools from Artek, a high-end Finnish design company that has been around almost 100 years and is famous for featuring designs from a famous Finnish architect, Alvar Aalto.


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23xKzW92gSwhSznj5t7PoBmaJTHjrNf1KVUuup72Wn9FPcfWdiepzd9snQHVhKULKksbs.png)


My wife wants ones with a patina, which means we can't buy them new, they have to be "aged" - but she also wants them in good condition, which is harder to find, since these chairs, the [Artek K65](https://www.artek.fi/en/products/high-chair-k65), have been in production since 1935, and many of them have seen their fair share of conditions under asses.

But, due to these "demands", I have been looking through a secondhand site near daily, as they come up sometimes, but the good ones are gone very quickly. And, this is also the problem, because in order to get the good ones, you have to be fast, especially if they are at a decent price. New, they are 500€ each, but used, it is possible to find them from 200 to 400, depending on their condition. The relatively good older chairs, can sell for more than the good condition newer also, because like us, people want the antiques. 

The problem isn't just the getting them though, it is that there is a very strong fake market and in the rush to get what we want, I don't always look so closely before sending it to my wife as a possible target to buy, which I did with this one last night:

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23y91zxDuKyNb4mKv1TB13adVMEshbzfcHW3sZgwcZ82GA1P99BLzGXPcPe1BAwQBEEBL.png)

When I was looking at them in the posting, they seemed decent, where I was looking mostly at the back support, which is often a bit shredded on the older versions and those that haven't been treated well. These were okay, so I sent the link to my wife, who contacted the seller and asked for a few more details, like more about the condition and the exact seat height. At the first reply, the warning bells fired, because of something they said thinking it would be a selling point. Paraphrasing as it was in Finnish:

>"I will check the height after work, but last night someone came to look at them and they asked if they had even been used."

Fantastic. But, the warning bells fired and the question was raised:

*So why didn't they buy them?*

If someone went to see them, they are obviously interested in getting these types of chairs, but despite the price being on the low end at the set of three for under 600€, they *didn't take them. 

>Time to pay attention.

There was another add there for chairs priced at 400 each, so I used those to compare to see if anything stood out. And once I did, it was obvious that the ones were were looking at were not only fake, they weren't even good fakes and once the differences were seen, I couldn't unsee them.

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23y8zBNnSaiD7TRo5e5anLmhgmfCo4GJqcXsMFiTxp3GdE32WhZipDjmMa6WPmrJNFdHd.png)

The thing that surprised me once I *was paying attention,* was how I hadn't noticed it earlier - like in one of those "spot the difference" comparison pictures. Even between the set of three chairs in the same advertisement, they were clearly not the same, with the shape of the backrest not uniform and misfitted, and the screws that hold them on, not even close t othe orgiginal style. 

![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/Eoc8wCAdyifuRYo1ds39hfwah9eukNZfVnnMbqSkfnTGXiyYezYj28RHhBzyUYomCkC.png)

The ones below are older originals, that I used as a final comparison, just to make sure, but it was pretty darn clear - so why hadn't I noticed the difference earlier?


![image.png](https://files.peakd.com/file/peakd-hive/tarazkp/23w2yihwASdWQnjWmTG52GieuaLcowcKR9xfcNwRGHZQU6BkNhDDJwj3QGh6jQkWr2WfW.png)


## *Greed.*

While I don't want to spend 600€ on anything, I do want these chairs for my wife and because of at "desire" and knowing that I won't have too long to make decisions, I got FOMO and therefore blind to the warning signs. While these chairs (original) would make me nothing (they hold their value well), this is the same *greed blindness* mechanism that kicks in when people give their login keys to a scammer on Discord or, signs up for a "too good to be true" deal of some kind. 

Because of this greed blindness, we are prone to getting scammed, because people can prey on our desires, knowing that there are going to be those who will fail to check their intuition or, fail to get the warnings at all. And, while we can *hope* that people will act in good faith, the reality is, there are enough people out there willing to act in bad faith, that we need to remain vigilant and on our guard at nearly all times that we are dealing with people we do not know and have no way to prove their trustworthiness. 

>There is a lesson in here, isn't there?

Sure, *too good to be true* is probably not true and we shouldn't trust people to act in good faith, but more importantly than hoping that other people would change their behavior is, 

>Learning to control our own.

When we want something, we become blind to the signs that would change our decision making process if we could see them clearly. In this case it was some chairs, but it could be an investment opportunity, a cheap taxi, or an attractive person at a bar. The "object of our desire" becomes our weakness, because we start to focus too heavily on what we want, ignoring *what we don't want* from that same object. 

>I don't want a fake. 

But, in my haste to get what I do want, I didn't adequately check for the signs, glossing over the details, hoping that it was all above board. These kinds of scams are increasing in Finland, because of a cultural phenomena where people can trust others - but that culture is fast changing, as people are looking to cut corners more, there is far greater anonymity and, a lot more disconnection from each other and the community. When everyone is a stranger, some people think that it is okay to take advantage of them, meaning that they do not have the sense of duty to others that they once had.

So, it comes down to doing our own due diligence, which means not only looking for the signs, but learning what signs to look for in the first place. For instance, whenever I see these chairs again, the first things I will check is the shape of the joints and the placement of the screws. This is a very easy point to qualify or disqualify upon, before progressing to the next stages, which includes *turning the chairs over to see what the bottoms have on them and, the placement of the bolts. I am new to this "antiquing", but in order to be good at it, heuristics for certain products of interest need to be built.

When it comes to more weighty investments, it is even more important to get it right, which means spending the time to get down to the details and make an informed decision, rather than FOMO'ing in, trusting that it will all be okay. So many in crypto do not take enough care with their interactions and investments, which is part of the reason that there are *so many scams.* If 100% of people were actually paying attention, there would be little chance for scammers to make a crust, but because we are greedy, they have plenty of room to breathe and, a lot to eat. 

Greed falls on both sides of the scam - best not forget the part we play.


Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]

<sub>The intro pic is mine, but I am not sourcing the images as they are snipped from live sales and I have reported the fake one. </sub>

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