Lazy Man and Money

Valentine’s Day Contest, Two Pet Peeves, Dollhouse, and Personal Finance Links

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Valentine’s Day Contest

I thought I’d remind everyone that my Valentine’s Day Contest ends Monday at 11:59. Share some good frugal tips there and if you are lucky you’ll have a $20 Ebay or Amazon gift certificate (your choice). Right now you have approximately a 1 in 10 chance of winning $20 – not too shabby.

Dollhouse

Regular readers know that I’m a big fan of the pretty much anything Joss Whedon does (though especially Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Firefly/Serenity). After a three year break from anything that you would have seen, he returns this Friday with a new show on Fox called Dollhouse. Whedon won’t admit it, but the Friday, 9PM time slot on Fox is pretty much the death slot – not even Jessica Alba and James Cameron could carry it with Dark Angel. I know some of you might not be science fiction fans – and Joss Whedon definitely does science fiction. However, it’s science fiction in the way that Harry Potter is – a mechanism to tell an intriguing story with interesting characters. If you get a chance, I suggest you tune in or just DVR it this Friday.

Pet Peeve

The last three or four times I went to a restaurant that had ordered a soda that was all you can drink. Whenever the waiter or waitresses offers me a new soda, she takes the old one away – even if it’s not finished. So I go from having soda to not having soda – sometimes for a few minutes. I realize they are just refilling the glass I have, but I kind of wish they’d put me in a two glass rotation so I didn’t have to wait. The one I’m drinking stays until the next one is delivered. It’s a small thing, so that’s why I call it a pet peeve. Anyone else share this?

Enough complaining… this isn’t Grumpy Man and Money. Here are the links for this week:
Money Writers:

More Financial Posts:

I was also included in a couple of carnivals.

Bundled Football Tickets, Video Game Systems, Music, and DVDs… Arrrg!

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Note To Businesses: Consumers Don’t like Forced Bundling of Products

bundles.jpgWith football season coming up, my thoughts have started to slowly turn to blocking, blind-side blitzes, and blackouts. Recently tickets for next seasons AFC Championship rematch, New England Patriots vs. San Deigo Chargers went on sale. Though it’s a mere 8-hour drive, I was prepared to call in and try my luck at getting tickets. Then a friend told me something that I couldn’t believe. In order to purchase tickets for that game, you must buy tickets for two preseason games (see press release for details). If you are unfamiliar with preseason football games, the games are of little interest to fans. Typically the coach doesn’t want to risk a big injury, so the players that will play 90% of the season only play 15% of the preseason game. Teams don’t necessarily try to win as much as they try to evaluate the talent on their roster.

If I were to try to get the Patriots tickets, I’d surely have to try to sell them or not use them. Driving 8 hours one way for each of the games doesn’t interest me – especially when one of them is the 4-12 Falcons from last year. I looked into the possibility of selling them, but a distant friend says that they generally only go for 25% of their face value. In the end, what the Chargers have done is carefully crafted a scheme to effectively raise ticket prices for the games in demand rather than lower the cost of the preseason tickets to a price that reflects the marketplace’s demand. It doesn’t sit well with me. I’d rather see them just charge different prices for the games. Maybe there are laws against variable ticket pricing or perhaps the NFL doesn’t allow it. Either way, this is effectively the same thing.

It’s not just football ticket bundling either. It’s also:

  • Video Game System Bundling – Often video game systems will be released with a game bundle included. If you want the system, you better like the games that are bundled. If you don’t, you might be waiting a long time to buy the system.
  • DVD Movie Bundling – One of my favorite shows is Buffy the Vampire Slayer. After releasing the seasons individually, they released Buffy the Vampire Slayer: The Chosen Collection. This 40-disc collection has one DVD of “exclusive, never before seen extras.” If you want the information on this DVD, you are going to have to pony up nearly $200. Sadly, I know a few people who will do just that.
  • Music – Greatest Hits Collections – I’ve fallen victim to this one myself. I used to love Aerosmith (still do, but not as fanatical as I once was). They have a couple of albums like Gems which is essentially a greatest hits collection. However, it adds the studio version of a song that was only previously released as a live version. They’ve repeated this formula a couple of times. It’s pretty common, because studio executives know that fans of the band will by the album for that one song. Of course things are different now with everyone using iTunes.
  • Cable TV – In order to get FX and ESPN, one is often forced to buy a package of some 300 stations. You want high definition and a DVR? Well that requires another higher level of programming. Consumers say they want to pay only for the channels they watch. Cable execs say that it would be expensive as the popular channels subsidize the more niche channels. It’s also good for them to say, “Your cable bill has only gone up 50% in the last 3 years and we’ve given you access to 300% more programming.” It’s just not programing that you care about.

It really comes down to money. Executives of companies have found some ways to get you and I to give them our money. They play with our emotions to make their sale. In some ways, I want to congratulate them on a well-devised plan. In the end, I have decided that such marketing has left a bad taste in my mouth. Perhaps that’s why the iTunes store has been so successful – it’s allowed people a way to escape the bundling of products.

Photo Credit: °Florian

We Are Only Dancing on This Earth for a Short While

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[This particular article is a little lacking on personal finance. Sometimes the personal is more important than the finance – this is one of those days. Please give me the benefit of the doubt for a day or two to bring it back to personal finance.]

A few months back I bought a used iPod Nano off of Craigslist. It’s a first generation 2GB version and it cost me $60. I filled it up with some of my favorite albums and listen to it for a couple of hours a day. A couple of minutes ago, I got to the Cat Stevens’ Greatest Hits album. In particular the some Oh Very Young came on. Though I have listened to the hundreds of times before, today I broke down and cried.

This weekend my sister-in-law’s best friend died. I think she was 32. She had Multiple-Sclerosis for a few years now. It was not a surprise. The writing was on the wall for the past week – it was a matter of when the phone call would come – not if. I had never even had the opportunity to meet her. My only memory of her was actually my wife’s. She shared her memory of the day she said, “The doctors say there’s wrong with me, but they don’t know what.”

If there’s a Hall of Fame of being bad at dealing with death, I’m a unanimous, first ballot member. Anya from Buffy the Vampire Slayer may be Babe Ruth, but I’m Ted Williams. I’m always conflicted on what to say. There seem to be no words to help the situation. So what can you do? The common sense in me surfaces to say, “No one really wants everyone to be sad when they die.” I would like there to be a decent-sized reasonably priced keg party if I die. That and I’d like at least one person somewhere to put a flag at half-mast. Maybe I’m being silly, but I see nothing productive about being sad.

My wife and I got to talking about dying young yesterday. My wife had lost her best friend at the age 22 or 23. She said something to the effect of, “At least Jack (name changed) lived a full life. He had lots of friends and always seemed to cram every minute of fun possible into it.” In my infinitely bad wisdom, I came up with, “Did he really, though? He never got married, experienced fatherhood, or any of number other things that I’m sure that he’d be loving to do today.” (See, no one can be as bad at dealing with death than me). I’m surprised she didn’t break down and cry right there.

I quickly changed the subject to my father. I lost my father when I was 13 – he was 45. 45 seemed like a very long, long “full life”. I realize now that it really isn’t. He never got to see either of his son’s graduate from college. He never got to see the Red Sox win a World Series or the Patriots win a Super Bowl.

I can’t believe there’s such a thing as living a full life when you die young. Cat Stevens is right, we are only dancing on this Earth for a Short While. Jen, I hope that great white bird gave you a smooth ride to heaven – it’s no time for turbulence.