I’m now reading the Big Con, written in 1940. It’s all about con men playing the big con — not just street hustlers nickle and diming, but elaborate operations involving dozens of men, which took in $25k or $30k or even $50k at a time from a well-heeled mark.
(That’s the equivalent to $549k or $659k or $1.1M in today’s money.)
The Big Con is filled with quirky and unfamiliar lingo that describes techniques based on deep and familiar human psychology. One such term is the “shutout” or “prat-out.” From the book:
“He doesn’t know it, but he has been given the ‘shutout’ or the ‘prat-out,’ a clever method of stepping up the larceny in the veins of a mark when the manager feels that he is not entering into the play enthusiastically enough. It may be repeated several times so that the mark is fully impressed with what he has missed.”
The shutout or prat-out works like this:
The mark — let’s call him James Markham — gets acquainted with an affable, attractive man. Let’s call this second man John Conway, for he is a con artist.
Through various loops and intrigues, Conway convinces Markham that he has access to inside information on horse betting.
Conway gives Markham a tip on a sure-thing pony.
Markham bets.
And Markham wins. His excitement and greed flare up.
Conway feeds Markham another sure-thing tip. Let’s say Challedon to win in race 4.
Markham stands in line at the betting parlor to put down that bet before the race starts.
But there are a few people ahead of him in line. Unknown to Markham, all of them are part of the big con.
Each one is placing very large bets. It’s taking a long time. They finish one by one while Markham hops nervously from foot to foot, dreaming of the score he will surely make once he bets on Challedon in race 4.
Finally it’s his turn to place his bet. But right before he can hand over his money and tell the bookie which horse he wants to bet on, the announcer for race 4 says:
“And they’re off!”
It’s too late. Betting on race 4 is closed.
Markham listens to the race results as they come in. Challedon lags at the rear.
Markham listens with attention.
Challedon starts to move up. As the horses enter the home stretch, Challedon is in fourth place. But Challedon presses forward. Neck and neck through the finish line. Challedon wins!
And Mr. Markham sits there, stars in front of his eyes, calculating the small fortune he would have made had those bastards in line ahead of him been just a little faster with their bets.
Mr. Markham has been given the shutout or prat-out. He is now much more ready to be set up for the sting — to be separated from his $25k or $30k or $50k. That’s the equivalent to $549k or $659k or $1.1M in today’s money, in case you forgot.
But what’s really going on here?
And how can you use shutout or the prat-out in other, less larcenous fields of influence?
Perhaps it’s obvious to you.
Or perhaps I’ve given away too much in this email.
But if not, if there are valuable details you are unsure of or are still curious to learn, then you can find a full treatment of the underlying psychological principle in my Most Valuable Postcard #2, informatively titled the Ferrari Monster.
As I explained yesterday, I will retire MVP #2 tomorrow at 8:31pm CET.
The reason why, in case you’re curious:
As the name of it suggests, MVP #2 is really just the remains of my short-lived subscription offer, the Most Valuable Postcard, which I ran last summer.
MVP #2 should be a standalone course, with clearer positioning, with its own sexy name, with a bit more bulk, and with an extra zero or two in the price.
So I will retire it. Maybe I will bring the content back in the future, changed slightly and priced much higher.
But if you would like to get it before it disappears, at the current very affordable price, you can buy it today, of your own choosing, at the link below: