Soapy Smith's Soap Box: Mock Auctions: How Cheap Watches are “Worked Off” on Countrymen.

December 19, 2022

Mock Auctions: How Cheap Watches are “Worked Off” on Countrymen.

MOCK AUCTIONS
San Francisco Chronicle
June 22, 1879

(Click image to enlarge)

ock auction houses were a very successful addition to "Soapy" Smith's swindle businesses in Denver, Colorado.

The mock auction is a swindle in which a victim bids on and purchases what he is made to believe is a high quality gold watch, but in fact, he is paying good money for a very low quality one. Past research and articles I have published on Soapy's mock auction houses were based on period newspaper articles, which gave some great information, while leaving open-ended questions, as to the details of where and how the watches were obtained. Based on letters in the family collection, I believed that Soapy purchased the cheap watches. One letter in family hands comes from C. C. Lamos, a retail and supply company from Chicago, dated December 4, 1883.

Friend Jeff

Am dam [sic] sorry the watches did not pan out all ok.… You must always send them back at my expense as I hate like the duce [sic] to have any of the old boys kick on me. I had rather pay the difference myself. 6 oz white watches nice ones 4.25 each, is the best anyone can do. They are nice ones. Just got in a fine lot today. The Silver watches I have just [illegible] up to the Waltham agency here and will see what they say. He sends this reply and you can’t get any made I don’t think this season as they are very busy at the factory for holidays.
[John] Waller is still in Oregon doing well as usual he is making big money this year. Wishing you the best of good luck.

I am yours only
Lamos [1]

The fact that the letter is an apology for poor quality watches had me wondering how Soapy kept a constant supply of watches coming in as any break in the supply would shut down the auction house until more watches were received.
I came across a good answer from a newspaper article published in the San Francisco Chronicle, June 22, 1879.

MOCK AUCTIONS.
How Cheap Watches are “Worked Off” on Countrymen.

The CHRONICLE has repeatedly shown up in its columns the snares and nefarious methods adopted by bunko and cheater “steerers” to entrap country visitors and rob them of their hard-earned money. There is yet another class of swindlers, whose victims are numbered by the legion, who nightly ply their thieving art, and from the peculiar manner with which their operations are conducted they are seldom or never caught and consequently but little publicity is ever given to their transactions. The swindlers referred to are certain Cheap John establishments on Kearny street and their game is so ingeniously played that frequently city people and bucolic visitors whose wisdom teeth have been cut by experience with bunko and cheater men, readily fall into the trap and are swindled. For the benefit of those who do not know the game alluded to or the history of it.

$75 WATCH AND HEIRLOOM

From the time the Cheap John gets it until it is disposed of to some victim looking for a bargain, the following will be of interest. The proprietors of these Cheap John stores will, during the day, when they are short of material, visit the various pawn-broker establishments in the city and buy up the unredeemed cheap silver and white metal case watches at an average price of $2.70 apiece. The watches, with a sufficient number of steel chains, are then taken to a gold plater, who soon after turns them out with bright gold cases. The plating is done with 18-carat gold, and a white metal or brass case watch is sold as an 18-carat gold watch. If it is a silver case watch it is sold with the guarantee that it is on a “coin basis.” In the employ of these Cheap John stores are some six or eight cappers. During the night they are given a watch to “work off,” and if successful they receive for their services a dollar a piece. The chronometer, the brand of which is generally Swiss, is “worked off” as follows: Capper No. 1, having received the watch before the evening’s business has opened, waits until the store is filled by a crowd of the curious when he approaches the auctioneer and intimates to him that he would like to sell his watch, which is either an “heirloom” or one that cost him $75. The auctioneer takes the watch and tells the “owner” he will charge him one dollar for selling it. The watch is offered for sale and Capper No. 2 bids $5 for it, which is quickly followed by bids from the other cappers until it is run up to say $10, and at that price it is knocked down to the bidder.

THE “OWNER”

Then speaks up, and says he will not allow the watch to go for such a low figure. He is informed by the auctioneer that he can make one bid for the watch, which he does, $16, and at that figure it is sold to him. The auctioneer claims his dollar for selling it, and, of course, as the “owner” has not that amount, the watch is then auctioned off again. It is now, the victim takes his first bite. The watch is started at $2, and the countryman maybe bids $5. The cappers crowd around him and explain its mechanism, the solidness of the case and the clearness of the crystal, etc. Greeny is caught; and the bids are run up on him until he bids $35 or $40, when it is knocked down to him at that price. He is then taken to the back of the store and charged one dollar for buying the watch, and if he asks for a guarantee, he is given the following: “Received of John Doe, $40, for a watch. —.” The countryman no sooner reaches the sidewalk with his presumed prize when he is roosted by another capper, who tells him that if the watch is gold he will give him $50 for it. They go to a jewelry store near-by where the watch is tested with water contained in a gold bottle. The jeweler demands one dollar before he will give the result of the test, and the money is handed over, and the victim is told that the watch is not gold, and he is advised to take it back to the auction-house and have it sold. He does so and the auctioneer again puts it up for sale and knocks it down to one of the cappers, who bids $2.50 for it. The seller retains one dollar as his commission, and hands over the balance, $1.50 to the countryman, who is

OUT JUST $38.50

On his bargain. It frequently happens that among the watches purchased by the Cheap John there is a small one. A satin-lined case is made for it, and it is then given to one of the cappers, who presents it at the mock-auction counter with the story that it was a wedding-present to his wife and that he is compelled by reduced circumstances to thus part with it. It is at once offered for sale, and “worked off” on some victim whose sympathies are interested by the tale of domestic affliction which caused the sacrifice of the marital memento, and who imagines that he is purchasing a first-class watch at a price far below its actual value.

I found the details of how the mock auction houses operate to be of great interest, as Soapy's mock auctions in Denver likely utilized many of the same methods. Some of the information is new to me, such as

the purchase of "cheap silver and white metal case watches" from local pawn brokers, cheaply gold-plated, and then auctioned as being high quality gold watches.
The detail of the set-up and how the cappers lure-in the victims to bid.
The elaborate play of the capper offering to purchase the victim's new watch at a nice profit, with the condition of visiting a local jeweler for an appraisal, only to find out that the watch is not worth the price the victim paid for it.
Most notable for me is how the victim is lured back to the auction house, allows the watch to be auctioned off again, resulting in the loss of the bulk of the amount originally paid as well as the loss of the watch itself, thus allowing the swindlers to auction off the same watch to another victim.