My Financial Week that Was…
- With the exception of Wednesday, I stayed late at work each night this week. Since my work provides dinner if you stay late, I was able to eat well for free (as long as you stay under the daily allowance). One night, I brought home my dinner and Energi Gal and I split it.
- I spent almost no extra money this week. Maybe it’s just my lifestyle, but I simply just go to work and come home and partake in some of my free hobbies.
And other thoughts…
- Anyone see the MasterCard commercial where the elephant finds the zoo keeper’s credit card and uses it to help him get supplies for his cold. The elephant just taps the credit card and comes away with blankets and medicine. It’s a sweet commercial, but if an elephant can use my credit card without signing – it really looks like it lacks all security. And this is what MasterCard wants to promote? Anyone who finds your card can use it?
- As a true Bostonian at heart, I was looking forward to Daisuke Matsuzaka’s First start in Boston. I settled for skipping out of work early on Wednesday to watch it on national TV. DiceK, as he is known, cost the Red Sox nearly $20M a year. The ESPN commentators said that he is projected to bring $14M in tourist revenue to Boston. I don’t recall if that was for the Red Sox themselves, or the number for the city in total. I’m guessing the later, but it’s not too hard to imagine the Red Sox selling quite a few million dollars worth of DiceK shirts. It’s hard to overestimate the impact when all the Red Sox executives have their business cards in English and Japanese and sponsors (like Dunkin Donuts) are putting up huge billboards in Japanese.
I would think DiceK generates at least 14M for the Red Sox. Let’s see, the Sox play 82 home games of which DiceK will pitch 16 or so. On the 66 games he doesn’t pitch, let’s say the Red Sox average 1000 DiceK shirt sales at about $20 a pop that’s about 1.32 million, and then on the days he pitches they sell 4000 shirts for another 1.28 million. That’s over 2.5 million just on shirt sales. Given the other branding and stuff that the Red Sox have going on, I can see them easily generating about 14M in revenue.
On the credit card security, I think signatures are pretty much worthless anyhow. Most cashiers don’t even bother to check and when they do it’s not like they would question if the signature was slightly off…. I think a pin system is much better.
About the Master Card commercial: When’s the last time someone actually checked your signature against the one on your card? I know people who have never signed any of their cards to begin with. Plus, think about all the ways you can use a credit card without signing anything at all (at a gas pump, on the internet, etc.). So in theory the signature is giving you some protection but really its just a hassle.
On a related note, there was a really funny article from a guy who tried to see how crazy he could make his credit card signatures at http://www.zug.com/pranks/credit/
I still feel that my signature provides protection. It’s not useful at the point of sale, but if there’s a problem down the line, I should be able to dispute it pretty easily – emphasis on the “should.” How do I dispute a “swipe” as not being mine?
I’m glad you included the link to John Hargrove’s stuff at Zug. He’s a funny guy that I knew personally from way back in the Computer Stew days. Hilarious stuff, it looks like they are archived at http://readdy.com/computerstew/episodes/. It was way before it’s time.
Haha…I saw that Mastercard commercial and thought the same darn thing. Very poor commercial. I give them props for the MacGyver one, though. I loved that show!
OK. My take on the mastercard commercial is twofold: (i) who gives a damn if someone takes your card and uses it. You are protected from liability by federal law; (ii) Lazy Man, you need to get yourself a TiVO so you can skip the commercials… :-)
Hey I’m a Sox fan too from the Portsmouth, N.H. area. I live in Texas now though. Hopefully DiceK works out for us. If you’re a real sox fan you have to love the website bostondirtdogs.com
have a good one buddy,
Adam
I’m a Red Sox Fan living in Northern California too!! :)
Can’t wait until they come out here to play the A’s.