Landmark Sale: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

A particularly well-known form of [[The Tale]] for rather stupid [[The Mark|marks]].

 

{{examples}}

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* [[Walt Disney]] provides at least three examples:

* ''The [[Discworld]] [[Universe Compendium|Companion]]'' notes that Ankh-Morporkians provide essential services for the rural people of the Sto Plains "such as selling them the Brass Bridge at a cut-down price".

 

* Mickey Bricks sold someone the Sydney Opera House during his time in Australia before Season 5 of ''[[Hustle]]''. In fact, it was mentioned as the reason for his absence from Season 4, during which the rest of the crew sold someone the Hollywood sign.

** The London Eye was also up for sale at the end of Series 1. [[Hey, It's That Guy!|Inspector]] [[Poirot|Japp]] fell for it.

* In ''[[Chuck]]'', Sarah's father tries to pull off this con.

* In the ''[[Leverage]]'' episode "The Three Strikes Job", Nate poses as a real estate developer planning to build a baseball stadium to con a corrupt mayor. This requires him to make it look like an actual team was planning to move to the stadium.

 

== [[Music]] ==

{{quote|...and if you'll buy that

I've got some ocean front property in Arizona

And if you'll buy that

I'll throw the Golden Gate in free. }}

 

== [[Video Games]] ==

** There's also the rare drop item [Deed to Thandol Span]. Thandol Span is a massive bridge, making the item basically a [[WoW]] equivalent of a deed to the Golden Gate Bridge. The deed itself is classified as junk and as such has absolutely no use, but it fetches a high price from the vendors, and occasionally even from players who will buy it for its novelty value.

* In ''[[Baldur's Gate]] 2'' when a giant interdimensional starship appears in the slums district, one of the citizens will try and sell it to you. He also has one sales pitch to every NPC you can bring with you, all of whom know better than to accept. If you have Valygar with you he'll chase the conman off, seeing how it's technically "his" sphere since his ancestor built the thing. Strangely if you're a mage, you actually can get control of the thing yourself as your wizard's tower.

* In the [[Filmation]] version of ''[[Mighty Mouse]]'', a con man tries to sell the Brooklyn Bridge to [[Heckle and Jeckle]]. They politely decline saying that they ''own'' the Brooklyn Bridge. When the con man scoffs, he is utterly stunned when an armored car immediately stops by the magpies with the latest proceeds from the toll for the Brooklyn Bridge.

* Played in a very strange way in the Finnish animation ''[[Pasila]]'', during the second season. The head of the police force, Repomies, has been, in his own words, tricked in a pyramid scheme and now claims to own a pyramid in Giza, Egypt. However, he had practically "sold" the landmark to himself. He had only been visiting a perfectly legitimate museum's Egypt exhibition, that advertised itself "See the pyramids!". Obviously, they just had scale models of the pyramids. Later, during his vacation to Egypt, Repomies wasn't allowed to enter his "very own pyramid" and became furious. Now, technically he didn't really lose any money since nobody was scamming him in the first place. However, all this leads him to order Pöysti to arrest Ramses II who inhabits "his pyramid". Before that, he actually tries to sell "his pyramid" to his colleagues. It should be noted that Repomies is a prime example of [[Cloudcuckoolander]] and a very senile one at that.

{{quote|'''Cosmo''': So that's what con means. I've been wondering ever since that guy sold me the Brooklyn Bridge.}}

* The ''[[Star Trek: The Animated Series]]'' episode "Mudd's Passion" [[Noodle Incident|mentions]] that [[Con Man|Harry Mudd]] swindled the natives of one planet by selling them Starfleet Academy.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:The Tale]]

[[Category:The Con]]