I saw an Instagram reel where someone buys a pair of Nike sneakers for $15,000. This was not the only video as there is a large speculative secondary market for sneakers. I guess some of the buyers are collectors, but many are buying to resell at a premium. We learned about this in business school, with the classic example being Dutch tulip bulbs.

The Dutch tulip bulb market bubble, also known as ‘tulipmania’ was one of the most famous market bubbles and crashes of all time. It occurred in Holland during the early to mid-1600s when speculation drove the value of tulip bulbs to extremes. At the height of the market, the rarest tulip bulbs traded for as much as six times the average person’s annual salary.

Today, the tulipmania serves as a parable for the pitfalls that excessive greed and speculation can lead to.

https://www.investopedia.com/terms/d/dutch_tulip_bulb_market_bubble.asp

Of course, there are many examples of bubbles. People say that there is a housing bubble in Southern California. My run-of-the-mill four-bedroom house built in 1987 has an Internet valuation of ~$1.3M. Is that a fair price? Houses nearby are being sold at similar prices so maybe? Will the bubble burst at some point and send prices crashing? Likely. However, there is an intrinsic value to a house as a shelter so there is a floor to the valuation. Same thing for stock. There have been bubbles too, but there is an intrinsic value to well-established and well-managed companies. Stock in large blue chip companies will go up and down, but are unlikely to drop completely to zero.

What about sneakers? How much are people willing to pay for a (nice) pair of shoes if the collector market crashes? $50? $100? My friend is into collecting basketball cards. He would go to Target on restock days to see if he can get a box of cards cheap, but there are usually a crowd of people doing the same. IMHO, some of these cards have ridiculous valuations, like hundreds of thousands of dollars for a Jordan rookie card or something. Ultimately, it is a small piece of cardboard. The intrinsic value is near $0, and any valuation is due to the artificial scarcity created by the card companies. I have no issues with people speculating, but all market bubbles will burst, and there will be lots of people left holding worthless “investment” items.

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I found a listing for a pair of 1985 Air Jordans in Chicago Bulls colors. My sister had these exact same shoes, and in 1987, she got them signed by Reggie Miller and Pooh Richardson while they were still seniors at UCLA. Imagine what they would be worth now if she kept them pristine in the box.

At the beginning of June, I bought an inexpensive Bluetooth mouse for my MacBook from MacAlly/Amazon. I have a first-generation Apple Magic Mouse. It works fine, but I do not like the touch scroll feature. I would inadvertently swipe back when I am in a browser and have lost several post edits because I “backed” out of a blogpost-in-progress. The brand had many products, and I purchased their $20 Bluetooth wireless mouse. I received the mouse the day before my Europe trip so all I had time for was to connect it to my MacBook to make sure it works.

After getting back from Europe, the mouse worked fine for about a week. Suddenly, the cursor stopped moving. Strangely, the buttons and the scroll wheel still worked. I tried connecting it to my PC and the same thing occurred. Meanwhile, my Magic Mouse kept on working.

As I am fairly sure the mouse is the problem, and it was too late to return it to Amazon, I called the company directly. I misread the address as somewhere in Ontario, Canada when they were really in Ontario, California. There was no one answering the phone, so I left a voicemail. After two weeks with no answer, I went back to their website and filled out a tech support form. This time, the response was very quick, and they gave me an RMA number. The tech support email mentioned that it was likely the Bluetooth chip (why do the buttons still work) and they will send me a new one. I can keep the old mouse due to COVID. Tech support was also trying to locate my voicemail to figure out why I did not get a callback.

The mouse is pretty nice for an inexpensive wireless mouse. I believe they never received my original voicemail, and they responded quickly to my second request. I am supposed to get a replacement mouse in a few days. I will leave them a good review if that happens, even though the original mouse was defective.

Ugh. I am getting old and forgetful. I purchased a Kasa outdoor security camera last week. It had a coupon for $18, which took the price down from $60 to $42. Last night, i saw it for $42, but I forgot what I paid for it. I checked the order history, and it said $60. The $18 coupon was at the bottom of the invoice, but you do not see that when you view the order from the refund page. Anyway, like an idiot, I asked for a refund, thinking I paid $60, and reordered the product.

Since I was going out to get dinner, I dropped off the item at the local Kohl’s. When I got the refund notice, it said I was refunded only $42. Again, like an idiot, I call Amazon. It took me fifteen minutes and three tries to get a live person. I then berated them about giving me the wrong refund when the CSR insisted I got the correct refund (I did). I finally pulled up the invoice PDF and saw the $18 credit at the bottom. Ugh. I apologized several times and hung up. So instead of paying $42 for a security camera, I now have the same $42 camera coming next week, and I have a $42 Amazon credit instead of cash.

So stupid.

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I have dropped off several Amazon returns at the local Kohl’s. Initially, the refund desk was right at the entrance. You go in, drop off, and leave; it was quick and simple. At some point, they moved the Amazon drop-off point near the right-middle of the store so you have to walk through several clothing sections. Last night, the Amazon drop-off point was moved upstairs. Y0u have to walk to the middle of the store, take an escalator up, then walk to the middle of the second floor for the down escalator. It adds about 60 seconds to the return experience and you get to walk through half the store. I guess Kohl’s wanted to maximize the foot traffic through their store. I wonder if the cost is worth the extra foot traffic.

Also, even with the prevalence of the BA.5 strain of COVID, nobody was wearing a mask.

It is ancient history by now, but my friend in Beijing sent me both the mascots for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. She picked up a bunch of them in Beijing, and shipped one of each to my friend who happens to be in Chengdu, and he brought them back to the US a few weeks ago while I was on vacation.

This mascot’s name is Bing Dwen Dwen and it is supposed to be a panda inside an “ice” shell. This is for the main Olympic games; there is another mascot for the Paralympic games. It is a red lantern child(?), and no one wants that one. There was a price sticker on the box for ¥210 (about US$30), but these are hard to get without connections, so they are probably worth more for now.

I showed a pic of the various mascots and my niece wants the panda. She was not even sure what the red thing was. People in her high school Chinese class thought it was an alien.

The name of the name of this mascot is Shuey Rhon Rhon, and the sticker price is about half of what the panda above costs. They are fairly large so I do not know what I am going to do with the lantern child if no one else wants it.

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In my living room..The smaller panda has a pedestal that sticks to your car’s dashboard. I am not putting that in my Tesla.