Be-Backs

At just about every show the Merchant Prince or I will have someone ooh and ahh over an item, tell us they want it and could we set it aside and they will come back for it later. When we ask for a deposit they say, "no" but they will be back. These people almost NEVER COME BACK! It took us a few times to realize this but nowadays we tell them that without a deposit we're not holding onto it for them. Otherwise, we are sticking something we'd hoped to sell under the table and going home with it again at the end of the show. I don't know why people do this. A vendor at a recent show said to me, "Someday a whole busload of, 'be-backs' is going to come through here and mow us all down".