RACKETS IN CAMERAS

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22406, 13 August 1947, Page 5

RACKETS IN CAMERAS

SYDNEY BLACKMARKET SYDNEY, Ally 24.

Biack-marketing of cameras has in creased to a marked degree recently.

Cameras are still in short supply, particularly the higher-priced variety with good lenses, and are changing hands at two and three times their pegged price. Some blackmarketeers are using the Prices Commission to help them in their deals. The scheme works this way: A blackmarketeer gets to hear that “A” is looking for a particular type of camera with a fixed price of, say, £2O, and he hears that “B” has one he wants to sell.

He approaches ‘B,” offers him £3O for the camera, and goes at once to the Prices Commission and complains that ne has been overcharged £lO, The complaint is investigated, and ‘B," to avoid a prosecution, almost invariably agrees to refund the £lO. The coast is then clear for the blackmarketeer to approach “A," tell him that he had experienced considerable trouble in getting the camera, but he would let him have it for the ’cheap” price of £4O. A sum of £4O in cash and a receipt lor £2O accompanies the deal. A Prices Commission official said recently that he knew the scheme was being worked, but departmental officers were powerless to stop it so long as buyers and sellers persisted in making transactions at above pegged prices.