"The Pawn Shop Theory."

Have you ever been to a pawn shop? Generally, these are not nice places in shady neighborhoods, and are often visited by those involved in illicit dealings. Sometimes, you'll see a sports store ("Play it Again Sports") or a Music store that operates on "pawn shop" principles. I use the metaphor of a "pawn shop" as a sort of twist on Murphy's Law. Consider this:

I bring my run-of-the-mill, standard, cookie-cutter stratocaster guitar to the "new and used" music store, hoping to get some cash for it. The clerk surveys it, feigning seriousness. "Oh, well, you know, this isn't worth much, because it's a good ol' strat. These standard strats are a dime-a-dozen, especially these 'made-in-Mexico' strats... ." He continues to espouse its worthlessness, and I finally settle for a paltry sum.

Several years later (a point in my life in which I genuinely acknowledge my musical limitations), I survey the several guitars I still own and elect to trade another one at the "music" shop. This time, I feel better armored. This time, I don't have a standard, run-of-the-mill strat; no, this time I have a unique, one-of-a-kind, special edition strat, that happened to have cost a pretty penny when I purchased it new. I walk in with a confident attitude, like, "this time, I'll get some respect."

The clerk surveyed it suspiciously. "Hmm, oh..." he begins. "Oh, well, these special edition strats aren't that popular, everyone wants a standard strat instead..." You'll be astounded to hear that this guitar, too, was assessed by the clerk as essentially worthless.

Lo and behold, it didn't matter _what_ I brought to the pawn shop... it was all worthless!