I know it exists. I saw it on Urban Myth.com!!

It's amazing how often kids send parents and grandparents on fool's errands.

They come in an ask innocently for something I've never seen, or seen once in twenty years, or I quote them a price and their eyes get as big as saucers.

Just saying.

Not sure if the kids know they are doing this, or don't care.

Always a little amusing to me to see how miffed some of the parents are that I don't have what they are looking for, and when I patiently explain that it is extremely unlikely that they'll find it just laying around, they obviously don't believe me.

But patiently explain, I do, and if they choose not to believe me and continue their search for Junior's desire, so be it.

But it's the retail equivalent of urban myth. "Well, Junior saw 5 of them at regular price at Walmart!"

"O.....K......" Never argue with Junior through doting grandparents.

Or....."I have 5 of them already, and I'm just looking for a 6th." (This comes from not knowing what they have. There have been, Oh, 10 different Superman #1 reprints. There have been 100's of #1's with Superman in the title. I've never seen a Superman #1, nor do I ever expect to.... Or....I've never seen a legit of the era Babe Ruth card, or Joe DiMaggio, and I've seen one Jackie Robinson....and believe me when I tell you, that there was a 5 year span when I saw just about everything readily available -- dozens of Mickey Mantles, etc. But no Babe Ruths...)

Really.

Then there is the, "I sent my money off for 5 of them, but they haven't arrived yet...."

Holding your breath for a refund?

But the classic is: "I figured you didn't. They only printed 5 of them, and 3 of them are in museums! But it never hurts to look!"

Yes. Yes it does, when you have me searching for 10 minutes...

Anyway, when I try to tell people that certain product is extremely difficult to get, I can see that people don't believe me. The internet has only aggravated this process.

"Oh, it's for sale," they'll say. "I KNOW it is....I saw it on such and such a website."

"Really?" I answer. "Did you know I sell a unicorn on my website? Sorry, you can't find him here at the store, but he's available at Pegasus.com....."

Some people get what I'm saying, most just look at me weird.

Unfortunately, I am wrong just often enough that I must go through the motions, usually. There always is that really, really off chance that I'm the only store left in the country selling that particular item for regular price... Or, more likely, that an item has been released, and I somehow missed it.

I have enough knowledge in my fields, though, that I can usually make short work of it.

And I've decided to not take offense at their skeptical looks. They just don't know any better.