How to navigate NYC’s knock-off handbag market
Dear John: Two weeks ago I was on Canal Street and observed some dozen or more sellers of counterfeit goods with their wares spread out on the sidewalk.
Many different phony luxury brands were displayed. There were no uniformed cops on the beat, but I did see a patrol car slowly drive by, giving no sign of disapproval!
There were even more women displaying photographs of handbags, etc., trying to lure pedestrians to an off-site location where they could buy these phony goods.
This open and notorious counterfeit selling should be stopped in its tracks! Where are NYC’s finest? T.B.
Dear T.B. Only a dozen?
There really isn’t anything the cops on the beat can do. The bigger question is why the city doesn’t close the warehouses where these goods are stored.
That’d probably take a federal action — maybe even on orders of President Trump, who would be helping cut down on the trade deficit with China if he did. A lot of fakes from China come into this country. I have some personal experience on this.
If you are walking around Chinatown it’s inevitable that someone will come up to you and ask if you want to buy pocketbooks or watches. (Incidentally, they don’t get the joke if you tell them you want to buy a car.)
If you say no, they’ll ask again. Or the person on the next corner will ask.
If you say yes, they will show you a card with all the pocketbooks and give you a price. If you say it’s too high they will usually cut the price by 50 percent. If you have a deal, this “sales rep” will call someone who’ll come running to your location with the pocketbook in 10 minutes.
Cash only — both for your sake and the salesman’s. He doesn’t trust you, and you shouldn’t trust him.
The other alternative is that they will take you into a little storefront filled with touristy memorabilia in the front. The pocketbooks and watches are in back rooms. Once you enter, you’ll notice that there are no doorknobs in the other direction. So you have to go from room to room looking at everything. This is when you think your life is going to end.
Even for a native New Yorker like myself this is scary. This must be tourists’ top tale of their trip to NYC.
If you go through this whole pocketbook tour without buying anything, the salesman will follow you down the street cutting his price.
It’s quite exciting. Try it some day if you are feeling brave.
Dear John: My wife and I have $100,000 tied up in mutual funds, managed through our local bank. Is there another way we can get “more bang for the buck?”
If we yank the money out we may have to pay taxes and penalties. S.F.
Dear S.F. Most people’s bucks have already been banged a lot these past few years. Maybe with the stock market behaving erratically it’s time to let your bucks rest a bit by trying to keep the gains you’ve made.
I can’t advise you what to do. But the mutual fund you are invested in would be happy, I’m sure, to suggest everything from conservative investments (like money market funds, now that interest rates are rising) to big-bang funds that invest in risky technology companies.
And if you get a good adviser, the first thing she’ll ask about is your risk tolerance and how close you are to retirement.