Blind Item- Could also be called a blind purchase. The buyer need not be literally "blinded" or prohibited from examining the item for sale. The defining characteristic of the transaction is as follows. Even when the purchaser is allowed to look at, hold, try out, etc., the item he is considering, he is unable to make a rational judgment about it.
Illustration: Quite literally, he does not know what he is looking at. He lacks a frame of reference. He can not make reasonable comparisons. He sees what he is told to see--much as when the average motorist's mechanic points to the water pump, alternator, or master cylinder. The prospective violin buyer might as well be standing in line for a lottery ticket or participation in a "grab bag" sale. But he does not think of his activity in this way. Therefore, he is all the more easily victimized, taken advantage of, "take to the cleaners," or just plain "taken"