To bet that no one has ever bought something they're happy with from cold callers

[LaurieFairyCake]

Not once has this happened

In general, you're right.

But we used to get some foreign art students come round and try to sell their coursework, and I have two canvas paintings that I love from them.

I have, twice. Both times were aerial photos of our house.

The first time I said in all innocence and completely truthfully when he told me how much it cost "I only have ten pounds in my purse, doesn't matter how nice it is" and he said "sold".

The second time (we'd moved) I tried the same line even though it wasn't true and it worked again.

I wouldn't buy one now, though. I imagine Google Earth has done for them.

Yep, we also bought an aerial photograph of our house and surrounding streets, taken in 1932. Very happy with it!

Ooh i bought some lovely pillows from a traveller a few years ago. They wash up really well too unlike all previous pillows ive owned.

I never, never, NEVER buy anything at the door......
But yes, like previous posters, I bought an aerial photo of our house and the surrounding area. It's fascinating to see the changes that have happened over the years! I even remember the salesman's name! It was Imran Khan!! ( but not THE Imran Khan! :-) )

I'd love an aerial photo of my house! How does that work tho? Do they have a load of photos of one smallish area and just do those streets and then get different photos and do another area? How do they get the photos? Are they big?

They go up in a small plane or helicoptor and take the photos then go to all the houses they snapped and offer them for sale.

You could try googling to see if there are any companies local to you that do them.

we bought a double memory foam mattress from the back of a lorry when the guy came to the door. It was a brilliant buy and he even took it upstairs for us!

I was given a birthday present that came via a cold caller!! It was an art student and I have black and white cat picture on my wall now!

I used to work with someone who sold ariel photos door to door, he said at one house he got a lot more than £10 out of the woman's purse

Although I'm sure it's total bollocks he made up to deflect from the fact he used to be a door to door sales man

I bought an oil painting from an art student. I absolutely love it and it gets lots of compliments.

When I was in my front garden last summer a man with a van full of shrubs stopped outside my house to show me his wares

I knew nothing about gardening and he cheerfully told me what I needed and even plonked the pots down where he reckoned the plants would look good.

A fistful of fivers later he was on his way. And you know what, he was right. They are all still alive, look great and his prices were (as he boldly stated) way better than the garden centre.

I was completely steamrollered but it was all good in the end. Phew. Have only recently confessed to DH!

I got a sort of frondy mauve de-cobwebbing stick thing off a chap with learning difficulties because he said " Thank you for smiling " when I opened the door and I hadn't the heart to tell him to get lost ...

It's actually really useful! ( My house is where every spider in a hundred mile radius goes for their holidays )

Some fantastic frozen fish. The salmon was amazing along with the chicken kiev's, prawns, smoked haddock and cod

I want an art student to come round my way I'm very jealous of you lot that have had that

We had a woman in her 50s sell us some homemade rolls once, never saw her again. We still have a knife grinder that comes round once or twice a year (but we don't use him), lots of men selling teak garden furniture, people selling fish from Grimsby, ex-miners selling dishcloths etc. A new company has been trying to persuade me to buy boxes of food with recipe cards so I can cook from scratch. We are a family of 5 which means any scheme would cost a fortune, they say the meals work out as £4 a head...

We've had art students a few times but only bought once - but we love the picture. Not particularly "ART"y, but a nice bold and simple picture that looks well on the wall. Admittedly, by the time we added on framing costs, it wasn't cheap, but we still love it over 12 years later (they came to the door when we were clearing the house ready to sell - our first house).

I got steamrollered into buying some frozen food years ago, iirc I bought some steaks and some fishy things in pastry. It was expensive and I couldn't really afford it at the time so felt a bit of a mug but it was very nice and made for some easy dinners for a while!

A man came to the door offering to prune our huge Brambley Seedling apple tree. Reasonable price. He had 2 lovely young lads with him. They had loads of industrial equipment and did a great job; cleared every last leaf away and put the apples that had been still on the tree in a neat pile on our patio. I was delighted. We're getting on a bit and it was a real Godsend. They took all the heavy wood/branches off in their lorry and the man even gave me a peck on the cheek!