Fair Play

We had a great time Saturday at the Seminole County Fair. We were set up right across from some of the midway games and handed out free bike helmets and gave a lot of people a chance to play our MIX prize wheel.

After we'd been there for awhile though, I noticed that the guy who was working the balloon game near us was looking a little down because we were stealing a lot of his business. His game was 3 darts for $5 and we, as always, didn't charge for chances to win our prizes. So I thought it might be a good idea if I went over, showed him we weren't here to pick his pocket, and take my chances to win a stuffed SpongeBob SquarePants.

Not really reading all his signs before I plunked down my $5, I picked up the 3 darts. I'd always heard that at carnivals they underfill the balloons and grind down the darts so that even if you hit one, the balloon is less likely to pop. Not wanting to be a victim, I made sure to throw the darts with extra zip.

The first dart missed. But the next two throws were brilliant, and the balloons had no chance. The guy was so impressed, he handed me more darts to have a chance to continue my streak. He was even nice enough to tell me that if I could pop just 3 more balloons, I could graduate to a larger stuffed animal. He said something else about no charge, but I was too busy checking out the larger prizes to hear everything.

First bonus throw...pop! Second throw...pop!

He said "just two more!"

Third throw...miss. He said "no charge for that one."

Fourth throw...pop! He said "great job! You're operating on a tab!"

As I threw the fifth bonus dart his words finally echoed off my brain..."operating on a tab?"

The balloon popped, but it was my ego that deflated. I had fallen for an upsell. As he handed me SpongeBob, he asked for the $12 that the extra darts had cost. Total time at his booth, 1 minute. Total cost $17. The lesson I learned...priceless.

Meanwhile, back at our tent, I glanced over from time to time when people stopped by to play the balloon game to watch him do the "bonus dart upsell" to them. Much to my dismay, he never did it again. He must've done the math and figured that if there's a sucker born every minute, I'd been a big enough one to have the whole hour covered.

I consoled myself with the thought that on some level he must feel a little guilty and "at least I can sleep well at night." However, you can see by the time stamp below that, unlike my dart throwing, that thought was a little off the mark.