In class recently, I learned about sales asymmetry. I was instantly reminded of something I did for a friend over the summer.
A neighborhood friend of mine, who I will call E, texted me with a message “can you help me?” I was a bit cautious when accepting to help him since he always asks me the most outrageous questions. He picked me up and handed me a ring. I told him that it was huge and there was no way it was going to fit his finger. He later told me he tried to go into the pawn shop and sell it. I already knew that he was taking advantage of the fact I had just turned 18 literally 2 weeks prior. E was still 17.
He told me he will be around the corner and that I should negotiate for the ring to be more than 1k. He claimed the ring was his grandmothers and that it was a Tiffany gold ring. Not for one bit did I believe this kid that a ring the size of a quarter fitted his grandmother’s hand.
I nervously walked into the pawn shop and was greeted with a security guard who smiled at me. I thought these people were supposed to be intimating. However, I wasn’t intimating either since I was almost half the guards size wearing crocs. Slowly, I walked further into the shop and had a man take a look at the ring, “You want it loaned or you trying to sell?” I was repeating the script I had in my head for each step of the process. “Sell.”
By the time I was at the counter, the man looked at me and the ring. He asked me where I had gotten it and why I wanted to sell it. Again, I went with the stories E had told me to go with, “My grandmother had given it to me and said to do whatever with it so I want to see how much I could get for it.”
After some painful small talk and scanning my fingerprint into the system, the guy handed me 420 dollars for the ring. For a Tiffiany ring, I would think it’d be worth more. Or that’s what at least E told me. I took the money and left shaking, worrying the cops would be outside to get me because I just sold someone else’s ring. It wasn’t stolen, it was a gift. A very valuable gift that would’ve been worth a lot but what did I know about a ring that looked like it could fit on a football player. I knew absolutely nothing. And I’m sure the man at the pawn counter saw right through me that I was just a fresh 18 girl who just thought she walked out with a great deal on a ring that Shaquille O’Neal could wear on his pinky.
I promised myself to never take a task like that from E ever again, and no I did not get in trouble.
SchrieberBE23 
FrenchJA21 
andersonsa22
That is an extreme example of asymmetry, though certainly gets the idea across.
I’ve never sold something from a pawn shop, and I probably won’t because that environment makes me nervous as well. It feels like sometimes they take advantage of people and if I know a Tiffany ring is worth more than 1K, and they offered me 420, I would be nervous to tell him no.