This is kind of a tough question with no one size fits all answer. If the salesman would intentionally misinform a younger kid about pitting on a salt wood era Browning, he would probably do the same to Jimmy, or CZ, or any of us. But the best time to discreetly educate the kid would be as soon as he picked up the gun, and before he headed to the counter to start negotiating. I've had my share of gun salesmen who lied to try to make a sale. Not some clueless Cabela's part-timer who doesn't know a revolver from a semi, but salesmen who knew better. I wouldn't get angry if some smarter older guy advised caveat emptor.
We should all learn from our mistakes, but I always told my kids it is a lot less painful to learn from other's mistakes. A lot of guys come here with questions before they buy, and we try to offer advice that might either cause or prevent a purchase. If they offer too much information about a great deal, we've seen some here locate the gun and buy it out from under them... another form of buyer beware. However, interfering in a sale, or telling the kid after the fact that he got screwed isn't going to make you very popular. And consider the opposite side of this coin. What if you saw an elderly lady you knew in the process of selling her late husband's high grade Parker for a small fraction of its' actual worth. Would you say something, or just let her get screwed, and hope Karma later took care of the cheating buyer? I recently advised a guy here that it would be a mistake to Cerrakote the barrels of a vintage English double shotgun, and a couple others politely advised the same, offering better alternatives. He made it clear that he wasn't interested in our advice, and may have wondered why he didn't get high praise when he later posted after photos of his Cerrakoted gun. We tried giving good unsolicited advice. No skin off my posterior that he didn't like it, and I hope he's happy. You can't save them all.
There does seem to be a general consensus that it is almost always poor form to interfere with a sale in progress, and I agree. So is it any different when the Nutty Professor is the guy most likely to interfere or undermine potential gun sales of those he does not like in the For Sale Forum here? He continues to do it, even knowing that preventing his enemies from making a sale also prevents Dave Weber from potentially earning his $12.00 fee for a successful sale. I think NOYB and WTFRU are valid points there. Nothing a little Moderation couldn't fix though.
