BitCoin

Quote: Mission146

Quote: darkoz

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: AxelWolf

I noticed land end Inc lost 30 % in one day. It must be a pyramid scheme according to some.
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Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme not a pyramid scheme, they are not the same thing.
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OMG, beanie babies was a Ponzi scheme?

You have been claiming Bitcoin are beanie babies.

Can we sue beanie babies manufacturer for running a Ponzi scheme?

Or can we just ignore your post which makes no sense?
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Beanie Babies is just a collectible, and also a confidence game, so similar to Bitcoin in that sense. It looks like FTX may have been a Ponzi scheme, but I don’t think Bitcoin itself is.

On the other hand, Blackrock is, apparently, allowed to not pay people when they want their money. I guess it’s a little different for a REIT as the game is physical property, which is presumed to be quite a bit less liquid (and I assume all of this is laid out in the contract anyway) compared to BTC which should be, theoretically, the second most liquid thing to cash itself.

Anyway, it was decided that Beanie Babies didn’t have the value they once did. Confidence game over, or, fewer players anyway.

Will the same happen to BTC? Who the hell knows? How can I predict what BTC is going to do when it is fundamentally worthless and any implied value it has is totally illogical and based only on people assigning it that value anyway?
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That makes Blockbuster video a beanie baby.

One moment people had an interest in using Blockbuster. The next they didn't.

Sears as well.

I never liked Blockbuster, the prices were too high. There was a Family Video that went up elsewhere when Blockbuster disappeared. They'd have old DVD/Blu-Ray movies to rent for 50 cents or $1; new releases were too expensive, as were video game rentals. I thought I saw Amanda Bynes working at my local store and in 6 months the place closed down. I really need to check ID's on suspicious personalities, but I really have no right to. Anyway, online entertainment is replacing B&M video rental stores. In 1990, I tried to rent a video tape, and since I didn't have a credit card, they wanted a $90 deposit for each tape. All that's left is the Red Box machine at the local stores, and Red Box online if I bother to set up an account.

I've been told that credit cards won't work during rolling power blackouts forecast for the northeast this winter, but neither will my thermostat or my TV.

Bitcoin backed credit cards are being frozen during this trouble with FTX and other platforms.

Quote: darkoz

That makes Blockbuster video a beanie baby.

One moment people had an interest in using Blockbuster. The next they didn't.

Sears as well.
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Blockbuster Video was a company, not a collectible. In the case of Beanie Babies, TY was the company. The Ty company still exists to this day, it would appear.

The bubble for the Beanie Babies finally busted as, to a large extent, some people began to realize the fact that they are just worthless little stuffed animals that literally anyone decent at sewing could make but for copyright/trademark/patent infringement, or whatever. That's kind of how confidence games work, you get everyone to supposedly buy into the idea of something fundamentally worthless having value and then, intentionally or unintentionally, you participate in the thing in question which helps further bump up the perceived value (some people are intentional pumpers) and then you try to get out near the top.

Really, you're kind of counting on Ty to play along with the whole thing as they could tank the perceived value simply by releasing a ton more of the product in question that is supposed to have value. Even then, some people would try to keep it propped up by virtue of it being, "First edition," or whatever, as if it's not still just a stupid stuffed animal.

Sears is a whole story on its own, but a very entertaining one. I'd start with the Company Man (Youtube) videos on that and Kmart, then go from there.

Blockbuster was simply a product category (physical movie rental) that there wasn't going to be a place for and the company didn't realize it until it was too late. In fairness to them, the Great Recession didn't help and they couldn't have known first by-mail, then by streaming, companies such as Netflix would take off so fast. Additionally, Redbox started to pick up in popularity, tended to have the latest movies and games, and didn't have nearly the cost to bring the products to the consumer that Blockbuster did.

Also, cable providers actually started competing with Blockbuster by way of having video rental on demand.

One interesting thing is that Blockbuster once had the opportunity to buy Netflix and passed on it, so you can look into that. At the time, Netflix would have sold itself to Blockbuster to the tune of 50M, but circa 2000, there was really no reason to believe Netflix would succeed as a company as physical rental was pretty standard and Blockbuster probably felt it could compete with Netflix in anything else if Netlfix ended up being successful-which Blockbuster thought it wouldn't be. Here's a good article to start:

https://sports.yahoo.com/blockbuster-ceo-struggled-not-laugh-191553438.html#:~:text=In%202000%2C%20the%20CEO%20of,them%20out%20of%20the%20room.

So, was Blockbuster a Confidence Game? I don't think so. It's certainly not a collectible. Was Blockbuster overvalued? Definitely, but most companies are.

I put all my money in Betamax over VHS.
j/k

Seems speaking of Blockbuster, I think for a while they had a Betamax section. Betamax didn't get around to fixing their tape length soon enough. Having to use two tapes to watch a movie killed it,

Then I was positively sure Laser Disks were the next big thing. But the big record size ones not CDs.

Then I put all my money on cassette tapes over vinyl as a nostalgia item.

I can afford a penny stock now.

Quote: darkoz

Quote: Mission146

Quote: darkoz

Quote: EvenBob

Quote: AxelWolf

I noticed land end Inc lost 30 % in one day. It must be a pyramid scheme according to some.
link to original post

Bitcoin is a Ponzi scheme not a pyramid scheme, they are not the same thing.
link to original post

OMG, beanie babies was a Ponzi scheme?

You have been claiming Bitcoin are beanie babies.

Can we sue beanie babies manufacturer for running a Ponzi scheme?

Or can we just ignore your post which makes no sense?
link to original post

Beanie Babies is just a collectible, and also a confidence game, so similar to Bitcoin in that sense. It looks like FTX may have been a Ponzi scheme, but I don’t think Bitcoin itself is.

On the other hand, Blackrock is, apparently, allowed to not pay people when they want their money. I guess it’s a little different for a REIT as the game is physical property, which is presumed to be quite a bit less liquid (and I assume all of this is laid out in the contract anyway) compared to BTC which should be, theoretically, the second most liquid thing to cash itself.

Anyway, it was decided that Beanie Babies didn’t have the value they once did. Confidence game over, or, fewer players anyway.

Will the same happen to BTC? Who the hell knows? How can I predict what BTC is going to do when it is fundamentally worthless and any implied value it has is totally illogical and based only on people assigning it that value anyway?
link to original post

That makes Blockbuster video a beanie baby.

One moment people had an interest in using Blockbuster. The next they didn't.

Sears as well.
link to original post

Blockbuster had the opportunity to buy Netflix for $50 million. That may have been poor judgement.

Quote: rxwine

Betamax didn't get around to fixing their tape length soon enough. Having to use two tapes to watch a movie killed it,

Then I was positively sure Laser Disks were the next big thing. But the big record size ones not CDs.

Laser Discs had the same sort of issue -- you'd have to eject it and flip it over to watch the end of the movie! I had a couple of roommates who both had laser discs. Great quality, but they & the players were very expensive compared to VHS, from what I understand. Plus the flipping issue!

BTW, anyone interested in moving into a Blockbuster er... Boathouse storefront, I think you can get a good deal on this one!

Quote: DRich

Blockbuster had the opportunity to buy Netflix for $50 million. That may have been poor judgement.
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Now there's a sitcom on Netflix about the last Blockbuster in the world.

Bitcoin.
I didn't realize this, but it's now underwater for the last five years. If you bought bitcoin five years ago and Ronco'd it, you are down 15% on the price and would have collected zero in dividends. Five years is a good window into an investment and is what most people look at.
Buy now before it hits $250,000.

Quote: billryan

Bitcoin.
I didn't realize this, but it's now underwater for the last five years. If you bought bitcoin five years ago and Ronco'd it, you are down 15% on the price and would have collected zero in dividends. Five years is a good window into an investment and is what most people look at.
Buy now before it hits $250,000.
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I didn't realize that either. That is positively brutal and pretty much ends any argument about it moving with the broader market, even though BTC not being near all-time highs and freefalling when the broader markets are actually up made any such argument instantly ridiculous anyway.

Quote: Mission146

Quote: billryan

Bitcoin.
I didn't realize this, but it's now underwater for the last five years. If you bought bitcoin five years ago and Ronco'd it, you are down 15% on the price and would have collected zero in dividends. Five years is a good window into an investment and is what most people look at.
Buy now before it hits $250,000.
link to original post

I didn't realize that either. That is positively brutal and pretty much ends any argument about it moving with the broader market, even though BTC not being near all-time highs and freefalling when the broader markets are actually up made any such argument instantly ridiculous anyway.
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Hmmm. You would have been better off investing in a bank like Citibank five years ago



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Oh my bad what a brutal investment. United airlines would have been better



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Oopsy my bad again. At least Amazon did good by anyone who invested nearly five years ago on September 21, 2018.

Oh damn wrong again those investors stock isn't up either.