My last shred of faith that there is anything real remaining on the internet has now gone. Wedding dress guy has turned out to be a hoax. Like seemingly everyone else on the internet, I recently checked out
his eBay auction of his ex-wife's wedding dress. I read through his rant about his ex-wife and enjoyed his remarks, such as his statement that he was selling the dress "to get enough money for maybe a couple of Mariners tickets and some beer." I also laughed at the pictures of him posing in the white dress. I didn't suspect that the story was a fake (I should have known better!), which of course it is, as Nicole Brodeur uncovered in this
Seattle Times article. Wedding Dress Guy is named Larry Star. He mentioned a sister in the story, but she doesn't exist. He mentioned that he had no kids with his ex-wife, but he does. I guess this is another case of how you can sell anything on eBay, as long as you weave a good story around it. And the dress did sell: for $3,850. For that price, the buyer gets a used wedding dress and a phony story. It's amazing what some people will spend their money on.
Comments
That he embellished his personal information in the auction doesn't make the whole sale a hoax. He presented the item as it stood, even going so far as to mention how he thought it looked like a shower-curtain. He certainly didn't exaggerate the quality of the dress, which was the focal point of the auction. If he'd presented it as something other then it was, then you'd have a case.
If sales were influenced by his personal story, well then that's incidental and rather arbitrary. It's not as if he's selling his life, such as it were. And that's really all there is to this discussion, at least the way I see it. Though I'll be the first to admit that I've never been the brightest of fellows.
Oh, and Cranky Media Guy, please don't be offended by what I said. I'm just calling it as I percieve it, and do not mean to anger you with my remarks. Thanks.
You just cannot take anyone else's opinion, and even the fact they are right, isn't it?
Have you ever thought of that fact, that it's YOU who misreads the dictionaries, and the definitions of the word HOAX? As of right now, you are the one bending the truth, and turn around other contributors statements and opinions. Even your very own one...
Maybe you reread your very own opener?? How does it start? Let me remind you...... "My last shred of faith that there is anything real remaining on the Internet has now gone. Wedding dress guy has turned out to be a hoax." With this opener, you were the one giving the meaning hoax a bad name. You did not bother to soften it up, after your lacking on substantial and valid points. Further down the road you said a hoax does not need to be negative. Well, I sure read the dictionary different. A hoax is something willingly and purposely falsified, with bad intention. This very case is at the very most only a prank. It fits perfectly in the same category as all those funny fake phone calls. No one would call them hoaxes. Well, probably you do?
I for myself found Katies, and Bobs posts very thoroughly, and well put.
You are stubborn to the point of annoyance. And while it's good to have strong convictions, there comes a point where you have to bite the bullet and admit you were wrong. And you are. There's absolutely no shame in admitting it. Noone's going to think badly of you if you do. 😉
Look man, the dress was represented as nothing more then what it was. His story about the circumstances behind how he came to sell the dress on E-Bay may have been embellished (ok, a few points were complete bullshit..), but that's arbitrary. He didn't misrepresent the dress itself, which to reiterate (as you either didn't understand the first time, or simply ignored it), was the focal point of the auction! People could clearly see what they were getting when they bid on the dress! Had he passed it off as the Shroud of Turrin or something as proposterous as that, then yeah, you'd have a case. But he didn't, and you don't. It's really that simple. There's no need to hash this out further. REALLY.
Now, I normally wouldn't continue to has out a matter such as this, but I've never met someone so completely arrogant in my life! That you are so completely wrong hasn't gotten through to you, simply because your ego won't let you entertain the notion.
You've been soundly put in your place over this matter time and again, and yet you still stubbornly defend your broken, misguided stance. I wish I had the bravado you do. Or maybe it's best I don't. 😛
Look man, the concepts put forth to you are easy to understand, if your ego will allow you to.
If we take your definitions of a hoax into account, it only applies to the dress itself, as it was the item up for bid on E-Bay.
The circumstances behind his aquisition of the dress as well as his life story, are incidental and irrelivent, as he presented the dress as it was. The consumer knew the condition and quality of the product that he or she would be getting when he or she bid on it. The item itself was not misrepresented, and as such, the auction was not a hoax.
As for this discussion, we've presented to you facts beyond refute, and you refer back to the dictionary, and offer thinly vieled insults to the legitimacy of our arguments, rather the formulating any of your own that actually go to further your point. You make wide misinterpretations, and at the same time make narrow minded interpretations. I have to say that, while stimulating, this has also been one of the most frustrating discussion I've ever taken place in. And for that, I thank you. That said, be more open-minded in the future. Nothing you've said here even hints that you've attempted to entertain any notion differing from yours in the slightests. I at least will admit to trying to see it from your standpoint....😛
Something that has been established or accepted by fraudulent means." "v : To deceive by a story or a trick, for sport or mischief; to impose upon sportively." "n : deliberate trickery intended to gain an advantage [syn: fraud, fraudulence, dupery, put-on] v : play a joke on or subject to a hoax." Please not that the oft-brought-up topic of humor is directly addressed in these definitions (as in the notion that the Wedding Dress auction can't possibly be a hoax as it was humorous). As for the issue of "deception," WDG has admitted that he made up the story. That is, by definition, deception. Katie, I find it funny that you say that I have NO idea what kind of person you are (even though what I said was complimentary), then in the next breath, you say that a "person like you" would never get close enough to you to know. Sounds like you're making some assumptions of your own there. Of course, I never said that I WANTED to "get close to" you. I'm sincerely confused as to why you would think I had any interest in that. My interest here is solely to debate the "hoaxiness" (to coin a word) of the Wedding Dress Guy auction. If you're truly choosing to discontinue debating with me, that is, of course, your perogative. I stopped posting to this thread a few weeks back. Then, suddenly, it was revived (much to my surprise) by someone else (I forget who) so I responded. From MY point of view, in the absence of any actual FACTS that refute what I have been saying all along, this hasn't really been a "debate" for at least a month now. As I've said before, when OPINION is in conflict with FACT, FACT wins every time.