ID Protection Stamps

This is perhaps the most hilariously overpriced item to be sold on these channels since the worry angels. If you haven't seen this being sold yet, have a guess as to what these little beauties are supposed to do, and the answer may not be what you think. If you've seen the thread title you'll have a clue as to the purpose they're now being sold for:



http://www.bid.tv/PreviousAuctionProductPage.aspx?Cat=6&SubCat=14&Offer=5067808

Mike Mason was selling these earlier these evening for £14.99+p&p/phone call but they have been sold before (according to the online list of completed auctions) for less money (£9.99), so tonight's buyers were ripped off even more than before. (The true shocker is the number of people prepared to pay that amount of money for them.)

Anyway, the answer is that they're ink stamps that stamp a grid of black 'x' symbols, and if you've seen something like this in the past they were probably used for "Spot the ball" competitions (or similar) in order to make life easier. But what's so amusing this time round is that they're now being sold as a means of obliterating confidential printed information as an alternative to shredding. Think about it!

I can easily imagine an Only Fools and Horses sketch:

Del: "I've inherited a warehouse full of Spot the ball stamps, and we're going to make a fortune from them."
Rodney: "How we're going to do that Del?"
Del: "Simple. Use them to obliterate any sensitive material such as my very kosher bank statements."
Rodney: "But surely a cheap chunky marker pen will do exactly the same thing much better?"
Del: "Erm..."

So there you have it. Expensive rubber stamps that do a worse job than a cheap black felt tip marker pen. Genius idea Rodney!

I've seen these sold before. Cheaper to buy a shredder. They were selling what looked like bags of cat litter a few days ago. They called them door stops! Goes to prove, some people will buy anything.

The pattern contains characters other than 'x', so they are not simply re-hashed 'spot the ball' stamps. However, I agree that they are overpriced, as there is nothing to separate them from any other rubber stamps (besides the pattern).

mr_rossi said:

The pattern contains characters other than 'x', so they are not simply re-hashed 'spot the ball' stamps. However, I agree that they are overpriced, as there is nothing to separate them from any other rubber stamps (besides the pattern).

Click to expand...

Fairly sure I saw one which just had an 'x' pattern, but to be fair I only watched a few seconds of the sale. Rubber stamps don't exactly make for compulsive viewing :smile:
Anyway, regardless of pattern it's still the same principle, at least £8 overpriced and an item that isn't really fit for its job unless you work somewhere that needs to quickly obliterate small items like cheques or receipts.

Use a black marker pen instead :wink:

We paid £3.00 for ours a couple of years ago. It is great for little things when its not worth going upstairs to the study where the shredder is. My husband also burns documents I prefer the shredder. They aren't just exexs, ours is squiggles and shapes and impossible to read through even from the back

why not just simply put all your confidential papers into a frying pan >>> set fire to it >>>> then cover it up with the Bid.tv fire blanket?

Job done!