Ben Stein taught me an important lesson the other day. In a TV news interview he said that he had been approached by some reputable investment bankers about investing with Bernard Madoff. Madoff, of course, is now infamous for having ripped investors out of $50 billion. Stein said they told him about Madoff's amazing returns that were made in good times and bad. He said he found it surreal and asked them how he did it, and they told him the strategy. Stein said he thought, That can't work. He then went to another investment analyst he respected and ran the strategy by him, and that guy said it couldn't really be working, either.

So Ben Stein taught me that even if something appears to be true, if you know in your core it can't be, don't be swayed! Your cynicism may yet prove to be correct!

Along a similar line I was interested in TV commercials I was seeing lately for a electronics liquidation sale going on at the Galleria mall here in Atlanta. It said, "The bank has ordered us to hold a massive liquidation sale..." Who was "us?" Hmm...Circuit City went out of business. Was it them? If it was, why didn't they say so? Wouldn't that guarantee their sale would teem with bargain hunters? Well, who cared who was holding this thing, they were advertising camcorders at $60! Away I went!

I arrived at the Galleria's doors Thursday evening at the same time as four other people. The sale was Friday, we were told, not Thursday. Hmm...I went home and looked it up on the Internet, and maybe I got the date wrong. However I was also surprised to read that there was a $9 entrance fee to even see the bargains. This hadn't been mentioned in the TV ads. Also, the company holding the sale had it's domain name up for sale. Wow, now that's unusual. Oh, well. Still worth checking out, particularly if a $60 camcorder was involved. I mean, this just sounded...

Friday I went down, and indeed the parking lot was slammed. There were people streaming everywhere. However I noticed something right away -- no one coming out was holding anything! Any time I go to Best Buy I see at least one person struggling with a cart loaded down with a surround sound system and maybe a plasma TV. But here, I only saw one guy with a small bag probably holding some $5 earbuds, which were now $14 including his entrance fee. Hmm...

Inside, people were already balking at the announcement of the $9 fee, but others were standing in a line reported to be an hour long. I overheard a guy surveying people coming out about what they had seen inside and thought he had a wise approach.

Finally I stumbled upon a family who were freely offering their experience to everyone, whether it was requested or not -- THIS SALE SUCKED! The lady said that it was "nasty" and "stuff at flea markets looks better than the stuff in there." Used, damaged, out-of-date, scratched, sub-pawn shop level, she said. Thank God she confirmed my suspicions and myself and many others got to tuck our $9 back in our wallets.

I went to Micro Center, my new favorite store, and found some real bargains -- I got two Samsung DVD burners for just $25 apiece! The factory one on my new HP was a POS that could barely read my home-burned CD's. I also got a USB floppy drive to use with my slightly-outdated digital camera for $20. Now those were good deals! Micro Center's parking lot was much fuller than usual, maybe from expatriates of this liquidation sale looking to fulfill the dreams the so-called sale had dashed.

So once again, if it sounds too good to be true, it's too good to be true.