I'll Take Scarves For Three Hundred, Alex
In life, we all learn lessons the hard way. I am here to help you learn this lesson the easiest way possible:
“Always ask the price before you buy something, anything. Always ask the price.”
Why?
A few years ago, all I wanted was a Dr. Who scarf.
Dr. Who is a sci-fi fantasy television show about a time-traveling Time Lord who regenerates into a different person after his death. It’s a brilliant idea that allows the character (and the show) to continue, basically, forever.
It worked.
Dr. Who started in nineteen sixty-three and has aired nearly seven hundred episodes to date.
One Dr. Who actor, Tom Baker, the Fourth Doctor (i.e., they are numbered) in the series, wore a very colorful (and long) scarf.
(click here to learn more about ‘Dr. Who’.)
When I told a friend at work, also a Whovian (what fans of Dr. Who are called), a co-worker overheard our discussion.
Afterward, she came up to me and said, “I can knit that scarf for you.”
Before her comment, I had looked up how much it would cost to buy a Tom Baker Dr. Who scarf online.
A little over eighty dollars.
My thought was, if she could knit one for me, maybe I could save a few bucks.
After that, we agreed that she would knit the scarf for me. However, over the course of a few weeks, we somehow moved away from a Dr. Who scarf (not sure why) and toward a red-and-black one. My co-worker designed the new pattern, I agreed, gave her money for the yarn, and she went off to knit me a scarf.
At one point she needed more yarn (this was going to be one long-ass scarf), and a week or two later, the scarf was done.
One day, she brought the finished product into the office. She called me over to her desk to show me the scarf.
I took it, looked it over, and asked, “How much?”
Before I say anything else, let me state this:
It is a beautiful scarf. It is long and soft and extremely well made, and what I’m about to say has nothing to do with the quality of the work my co-worker did on the scarf.
With that said, where was I?
Oh, right.
I asked my co-worker how much money she wanted for the scarf she made for me.
Without hesitation, she quoted her price.
“Three hundred dollars,” she said.
I did not react at all and said, “Okay.”
Considering I asked her to make it to save some money on an eighty-dollar scarf, the price was a little surprising.
Well, a lot surprising.
However, it was my own fault. I should have asked her the price before she started. If that was the worth of the scarf to her, then that was the worth of the scarf.
I handed her three hundred dollars, and she handed me the scarf.
The new scarf came with a few problems. For one, I was afraid that I would get it stained. Then what would I do? Do I get it dry cleaned? Besides my suit (for weddings and funerals), I don’t get any clothes dry cleaned.
What if I lost it? I don’t own any other item of clothing that, if I lost it, I would think twice about.
Also, like all other expensive items that I own, which one of my kids do I leave it to in my will?
But when all was said and done, the biggest problem I had after I received that beautiful, expensive scarf…
…I still wanted a Dr. Who scarf.
Photo of Tom Baker as Dr. Who (and his magnificent scarf)
