Values

Ambling down for breakfast, I always walk by this 1985 VW Jetta. Its a nice looking car mind you. The owner put a anti-theft bar thing on the steering wheel. The anti-bar theft thing is probably worth as much as the present blue book value of the car.

The threat of theft long past. There isn't much demand for a 1985 car on the black market.

In the National Hockey League (NHL), there is this team called the Toronto Maple Leafs. They sell out almost every home night. They have the highest ticket prices in the world. And even with a depression working in the economy, the owners found cause to raise them another three percent in the coming year. They haven't played in the post season in five or six years, like who's counting. Its been so long that the players on the team think playoff, is a russian hockey player.

Why bother such a team? Its values. That ticket is a must buy in the community.

Sticking with absurd values, and the NHL, a team called the Phoenix Coyotes who also haven't been to the playoffs suddenly went bankrupt. In stepped a man called Jim Balsillie (pronounced balls-lee) who owns Research In Motion (RIM) the Blackberry franchiser, offered a bid of $212 Million dollars towards purchase and movement of the team. This is violently opposed by the instransigent little weasel commissioner of the NHL Gary Bettman.

At the present moment the real value of the Coyotes is probably less than $100M. That is being generous because in reality, as an asset they are really worth squat. Bettman and Balsillie have been here and done that twice before. No one in their right mind would pay for a hockey franchise let alone over two hundred million. Like I said its all about values.