A few months ago, my roommate and I were bonding over appetizers and drinks at a tapas restaurant when two men approached us.
“Excuse me, ladies, can we join you?”
It was the type of venue where strangers regularly chat with strangers filled with live music and salsa dancing so their question fit the context.
My roommate is single, and these guys seemed nice, so we said yes.
They pulled up chairs and started chatting. They described themselves as cousins who had moved to Atlanta from New York, which piqued my curiosity.
“You moved here together?”
They explained that they had co-owned a family business together, a small jewelry shop. They closed it down and moved to the South to help an uncle who owns a small car dealership in the suburbs.
One of the guys took out his smartphone and started showing me pictures of the jewelry he used to sell.
That’s when the conversation took a turn towards the lame.
“See that?” he said, pointing to a photo depicting a row of large, shiny men’s watches. “I’m going to get myself some nice watches, once I sell a few more cars. I’m gonna get that one, and that one, and definitely that one.”
“I’m going to?” Noting your watch collection to a girl you just met is bad enough. Showcasing the watch collection you someday hope to have is even worse.
He pointed to one of the watches. “That’s a [brand name, jargon] with a [many-karat jargon].”
“I guess you still get dealer pricing,”I remarked. That’s frugal. Sort of.
He smiled.
“Yeah,” he said. “Business was tight, so I couldn’t keep anything for myself when I was up in New York. But I’m telling you, selling cars is a totally different world.”
“Once I sell a few more cars,” he continued, “I’ll have all this. Everything you see here.” He showed me another photo of a display window filled with shiny wares.
I stifled a yawn.
“What kind of cars do you sell?” I asked, hoping to change the subject.
“Oh, we got this sweet one on our lot, it’s a [jargon, horsepower, V-something engine],” he said. “And we also have a …”
I don’t mind car chatter. I know guys who talk about Aston Martins the way I talk about sprawling Hollywood mansions: we admire it from afar, but we’re not planning a purchase.
We’d certainly never take a loan for it.
Apparently, though, not everyone shares that same feeling.
“This is the car I’m going to get,” the guy said, showing me a photo on his phone of a brand-new Lexus. “My uncle will give me great financing on it.”
He leaned in.
“If you want a new car, I can get you easy financing, too.”
I smiled. Showing photos of your Lexus to strangers is bad enough. But bragging about the car debt you aspire to have?
That’s squarely in the Hall of Lame.
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About the Author: Paula Pant is the proprietor of Afford Anything — the blog that believes money should never hinder your dreams.
Photo Credit: vagawi
*I* would have been snoring after 15 seconds into that conversation.
I think it’s so sad that people aspire to own nice cars (or any cars) in the worst possible way. It’s likely from the sound of the watch conversation that he thought he was impressing you both.
Little did he know he was talking to someone with financial sense. LOL
And since he thought it was so interesting to talk about every detail of the cars and watches he aspired to sell I would have been eager to spit out some details of my own about why financing a Lexus was LAME and no way to impress intelligent, financially savvy ladies. 🙂
It’s funny — a guy once told me that single men “have” to own a nice car, or else women won’t be interested in them.
I told him that he’s chasing the wrong type of woman. Why not find a gal with good fiscal savvy?
The problem is not that he was firing with a shot gun. The problem remains and has always been most women fall for it.
What an awkward conversation! Were you able to keep a straight face?
“Hall of Lame”
I love it Paula. It fits the character perfectly.
Expensive cars and jewelry are two of the worst places I can think of to spend money. That’s probably why Lamo is broke and trying to sell you a Lexus, so he can buy a watch. Even if he sells a lot of cars, it’s a pretty good bet he’ll still be broke.
Some women do seem to fall for the flash and that’s why guys keep buying bling. It seems like the right way to attract the wrong kind of women.
I can imagine this was his hoped-for outcome.
“I can get you easy financing, too.”
“Okay, I’ll sleep with you.”
That guy reminds me of someone who once dated one of my sisters. The guy had no clue how to balance a check book, and frequently didn’t even bother to record checks. His idea of keeping track was to get a balance statement from the ATM (before the days of the Internet), and assume he could spend that much. No concept of outstanding checks.
My sister went to a great deal of time and trouble to straighten out the mess, searching through months of bank statements, visiting the bank, and finally had everything reconciled. He made no effort to keep the register current, and was soon back to bouncing checks.
My sister finally gave up on him and moved out. (There was much rejoicing among the rest of my family.) He went to a bar, got drunk, met a girl there, and got married to her within 2 weeks. I’ve no idea how long that marriage lasted.
My guess is that the tactic has worked for him in the past? It seems he was fishing for the wrong bait this time, though. You should have given him a lesson in getting too deep into debt for his own good! Would’ve been interesting to hear his reaction on that one.
Sounds like a bore and a half! “Wow, that sounds great! Well, would you like at the time…”
Some people are all about buying stuff. I try my hardest to avoid people who have any kind of expensive hobby or spending habit.
This is about as bad as the women that live in my subdivision. While I’m not rich by any means, we tend to get together every few weeks for cards. The women love to boast about where they are going on vacation, what clothes the bought, etc. I guess I’ll never get some people.
Maybe he just wanted to talk. I think that’s okay. Not everything has to be blog worthy.
Well… maybe he was nervous and wanted to make a good impression? Maybe he was so smitten that he didn’t realize that “Where do you work?”, What do you do? Do you prefer dogs or cats?”, “Do you like hiking?” sort of general chit chat would have had more of a chance of success? On the other hand maybe he was just a clueless boob. Hard to say without being there.
Many men say things they later wish they had not, but they were nervous or distracted. Once standing on line at the grocery store cash register I made room for the nice looking man behind me to put his groceries on the belt instead of holding them all in his arms. I indicated to him to put his stuff down. No response. I repeated my comment. No response. Man in a trance. Then he sort of work up and said to me, “I’m sorry, I was just wondering what your long hair would look like if you pulled those pins out of it.” At that point it dawned on this nice, well dressed, apparently well behaved, normal looking man that he had just admitted to a complete stranger that he was having a sexual fantasy about her. YA GOTTA LOVE MOST MEN! I tend to give them a break!
“I am going to buy . . . , when I get the money or loan . . .”
Would spell “DEAD BEAT” to me, but then, I am a man. After seventy-six years of life, and being married to the same woman for fifty-one years, I am the first to admit that I do not understand women.