Americans' 10 Biggest Wastes of Money

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

AOL posted an interesting topic: Americans' 10 Biggest Wastes of Money

I sure wish those fools that are wasting their money will stop buying vintage cards.... here's the article (or story)


Sports memorabilia: This market for the celebrity struck may be the greatest separator of fools and their money ever. One can only hope the saps who pay $700 for a baseball signed by disgraced steroid abuser Barry Bonds come to their senses. You may covet the signature of your favorite player, but keep in mind these souvenirs often are whipped off for $300 a pop by athletes getting paid $1,000-an-hour to attend a card show.

Would anyone that participates in this forum spend $700 on a Bonds autographed baseball? If so, please come forward. I have some stuff I need to sell, cheap... really...

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Ask Time Warner, and numerous others, and they'll tell you AOL was the biggest waste of money.

I'm not against buying a Barry Bonds signed baseball, but I would not pay $700. I think 'sports memorabilia' is an overly broad answer. That's like saying clothes are a waste of money, because some people in Beverly Hills pay $2,000 for a pair of rhinestone studded slippers.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

The war in Iraq

Subsidies to oil companies

Allowing companies to designate foreign tax havens as their HQ and avoid corporate income taxes

Pork barrel projects like that bridge in Alaska

Homeland security money for such hot targets as Idaho, Montana and Wyoming.

Parking meter readers

Valet parking in office buildings and restaurants.

Anything with a foreign name sold at Starbucks

State lotteries

Anything associated with Oprah

And how could I forget: anything referenced in the same sentence as "decor"

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Posted By: barrysloate

Adam's pretty much covered them all, including the biggest boondoggle in American history, the War in Iraq; but once again, the public perception of collecting baseball memorabilia is that of people buying worthless modern crap. Ever see an article in the paper that says tobacco and caramel cards just may end up being a great investment?

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Posted By: Joann

The first summer we were in Iraq, and I think the cost was something like $2.9 billion per month, I actually tried to make a rough guess at my lifetime federal taxes.

Using rough numbers, and being conservative, I calculated that every dime I had ever paid, and every dime I ever would pay, in federal taxes would add up to enough to support the war in Iraq for .... six minutes.

Boy was that depressing!

Joann

(Sorry for the partial hijack, and way O/T)

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Posted By: prewarsports

Hey Adam, I live in Idaho and I do feel very safe! Maybe that is why Boise Idaho was just named the number 1 place in America to retire to. War in Iraq aside, there are so many bigger wastes of money than Sports Memorabilia. Just take a gander at a Klimt painting and you'll see what I mean! I saw Paris Hilton spend $35,000 on a dog collar on some TV show a few years ago and I would rather have 50 Barry Bonds signed baseballs than that piece of crap.

Rhys

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Posted By: leon

I just saw news that some baby prince received a solid gold rocking horse worth around 1.2m.....That kind of money could feed ....well, never mind..

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Posted By: Judge Dred (Fred)

That kind of money could feed my vintage card habit for a few years...

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Posted By: Al C.risafulli

Lucent Technologies at $62 a share.

Not one of my finer moments.

-Al

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

offshore drilling, etc...(not just you Adam....).....

Gas is about $2.32 (per NBC) per gallon
Dasani/Bottled Water about $12.00 or more a gallon
Starbucks Latte about $35.00 a gallon

Remember when water was free and coffee was 49 cents a cup?
Talk about waste..........

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Posted By: Gary Nuchereno

Until we get things straightened out on earth I
think we should give the space program a rest.
All those brilliant minds at NASA could get jobs
at FEMA.

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Posted By: Jim Manos

I like that, you are correct...

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Posted By: Kevin Cummings

I don't know that these are in the spirit of the original question, but the costs sure as heck bug me:

(1) The salary of almost any Fortune 500 CEO

(2) The salary of almost all professional athletes

(3) Healthcare deductions from my paycheck

(4) The price of a 1.75 liter bottle of either Jack Daniels or Grey Goose

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Posted By: Ted Zanidakis

Kennedy (the 1st President I voted for) set forces in motion for the Vietnam War
in 1961....Johnson escalated it in Aug 1964 (phony Pueblo incident)....and it went
on and on for 12 very long years....until 1973, when Nixon ended it.
Over 50,000 Americans died and you talk about cost.....And, $$$$-wise it cost
many, many billions in $$$$'s of those days.

It divided our Nation and I wonder if we ever have really recovered from it. That, guys
and gals, is...."Americans' 10 biggest Wastes of Money"....all rolled up in one statement.
But, more significantly....a tremendous loss of precious lives that can never be recovered.
$$$$$$'s my friends can be recovered.

TOM B.

If you are keeping score....gas is $2.00/gal in Houston and $1.90/gal in Missouri.

T-Rex TED

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Posted By: Gilbert Maines

So what is the score, T-Rex?
What is the going rate for Grey Goose and Jack Daniels
in those areas?

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Posted By: jay behrens

Gary, I think underestimate the value of the space program. It's responsible for most of the major technological inovations over the past 40 plus years.

Pork barrel projects need to go. I remember back in the 80s, some senator attached a rider to bill for someone in district who got $5 million to test viscocity of ketchup and determine which one was the thickest.

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.

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Posted By: MikeW

One of my favorite threads on this board yet… I think I’ve mentioned it before - I don’t think it’s an accident that the vintage card collecting community is full of sharp, intellectuals… Dare I say, in contrast to the average modern sports memorabilia collector?

I’m usually not guilty of blanket statements, but…

Perhaps it takes someone that can be fooled into thinking the more glitter on a card the better, to believe the Iraq War, etc. are good investments as well.

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Posted By: Jim F

You guys all make good points on wasted money. But back to the original post, "$1000 an hour to sign autographs" and then sold for $300 a piece. Who writes this stuff? Is it the same guy who wrote about the Wagner in the NY Post or Times? What ever happened to fact checking? I'm not sure you can get a batboy to sign for that amount these days. The guys that command $300 for an autograph are making over $100k per appearance. I'm not a big autograph guy but I've been tempted to jump into some lineups and shell out a few bucks for a signature here and there. I'm not sure I would ever purchase anything again on the secondary market. Jim.

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Posted By: nbrazil

"One can only hope the saps who pay $700 for a baseball signed by disgraced steroid abuser Barry Bonds come to their senses. "

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/08/24/MNGE7KO8FP1.DTL>

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I've never understood the shows where ball players charge substantially
more to sign than his autograph is worth on the market.

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Posted By: runscott

I disagree on the space program - lots of peripheral things have come from space program technology.

The prices on modern baseball memorabilia are absurd - but I only say that because the stuff doesn't interest me. Obviously, if I could buy a Bonds ball for $500 and then sell it for $700, and get used to doing that regularly, it probably wouldn't seem so absurd.

Believe me - there are plenty of people out there who think paying $1,000 (or more) for a piece of cardboard that was given away free in a package of cigarettes, is insane.

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Posted By: Rich W.

In reality, almost everything that is bought for intrinsic value is "worthless". Baseball cards, paintings, comic books, fountain pens, etc. can not feed you, save your life or keep you warm in the winter. But historically, most categories have been good investments. And twenty years from now, we will probably all look back and realize that they were a pretty good investment today (assuming you are not buying 1988 Topps Rack Pack cases). And that's not even taking into account the enjoyment.

Rich W.

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Posted By: Dave Rey

Rich --

Don't you mean to say anything bought that doesn't have intrinsic value is ultimately worthless? Baseball cards have no intrinsic value...

I think you may have your definition of intrinsic backwards or you forgot the word "no" in front of intrinsic...

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Posted By: RIch W.

Dave:

That's what happens when you do not proof read before responding. Thanks for the catch.

Rich W.

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Posted By: davidcycleback

I think a personal waste of money is when someone spends far more than
he gets out of an item, whether the getting is financial or non-financial,
or when he could have bought the same or equivillent item for far cheaper.

For some people renting 'Die Hard' is a waste of $5, for others it's not.
Purchasing a Willie Mays autographed photo for $300 would (in my opinion)
be a waste of money, while purchasing the same photo for $20 would not. My
assumption being the $20 Mays photo is made using entertainment money, not
funds marked for orphans in Chile or to pay off the credit card debt.

While I agree that $700 for a Barry Bonds autograhed ball would be a waste
of money, both in the short and long term, I suspect that many living player
autographed balls will retain their value financially, and many of their
owners will get fair enjoyment out of owning them.

One can make a fair financial assessment of the financials of a purchase.
However, it's problematic judging others' taste, as one's own is subjective.

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Posted By: jP

most reality shows.

how about a reality show on poverty, or skid row, runaways,or orphans, crack babies, hiv born babies. i can think of soooo many things. but see these topics are not of interest to big tv stations. so they would rather pimp your ride, or do a show where 20 other women compete to see if you get to get laid by Flava Flav. waste of money!

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Posted By: DJ

"...paid $1,000-an-hour to attend a card show".

If Bonds did a show, he would probably charge $400-450 per signature and if he did 800 signatures, that's $320,000 for three hours worth of work and take into consideration mail order items, Bonds could probably take home $400,000 for four hours for signing his name. $100,000 per hour!

Paying $700 is simply moronic. Vintage singles can be had for around $200.

There are a lot of things that you could consider "wastes of money" but depending on how much you have in the bank, is it a waste of money? You ever see the MTV show "Cribs" and what some of these rappers spend their money on?

I was watching one show on E! talking about how foolishly some rich folks spend money and designer Ralph Lauren went through a "ranching" phase and had to have a ranch out in the South-west. He paid an artist $200,000 to create a fence around his home and even paid someone to make sure that the doors squeak the way they would in the old west.

DJ

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Posted By: judd hamlin

-any "magazine" available at the supermarket checkout (except Weekly World News- love the vampire baby)

-anything "infused"

-money spent on dates that you know aren't going anywhere 3 minutes after "hello" (not my dates with my dear wife who is still in the dark about my spending)

-Donald Rumsfeld's salary

-Dick "duck, you sucker" Cheney's salary.

-anything sold on HSN, QVC or infomercials

-Electricity bills for power used to watch FOX news

-and, for our little hobby, three words- Score rack packs.

/here 'til Thursday
//try the veal