Go Ahead And Sell Those Elmos…
26 September 2006After Reading Rich Dad Poor Dad made about $200 buying up this Christmas’ new hot toy, the 10th Anniversary edition of the Tickle-Me Elmo. All Financial Matters wrote about the trend, pointing out that there’s no reason a parent should be wasting hundreds of dollars on E-bay for a toy whose price has been jacked up well above the initial sales price.
My view? They’re both right. Your kids shouldn’t be expecting to get a toy that costs you hundreds of dollars just because they want it, and really really bad. Even if you’ve got the money, this is a horrible parenting choice. Think I’m wrong, and your kids will turn out fine no matter how badly you spoil them? Then I suggest you turn your television dial over to MTV to watch “My Super Sweet 16.” It’s a “train wreck” show (sort of like the Anna Nicole Smith show) - the people on it are such awful human beings it’s hard to turn away. I caught this last week. Two sisters were planning a dual party - after one threw a fit and rescinded someone’s invitation for hugging her in gratitude, her sister commented on how proud she was of her for being willing to turn people away from the party. They spent the rest of the episode congratulating themselves on how wealthy, important, and popular they were. Apparently this isn’t even the worst of it - this review points to an episode where the girl throwing the party forced her less popular schoolmates, desperate for the final invitations, to have a “dance-off” in front of her. What did she learn about money from her parents? When her dad tried to negotiate the rental of the nightclub (for one night) down from $50,000 to $25,000, she cut him off and insisted that $50,000 was fine. Wouldn’t want to seem cheap.
All that may not stem from one Elmo - but it’s a bad path to start down. Give them Oscar the Grouch instead (come on, anyone who lives in a trash can has to know something about lowering his expenses, right?).
If you’re selling the things to make a profit, I don’t see the problem. Maybe it’s not very Christmasy to profit off of the holiday, but it’s a pretty commercialized season anyway. You can use that money to buy your own presents, and the people paying that much for the Elmos did it voluntarily. Bad decision in life, but you can’t make everyone do the smart thing.
Discuss this in the Free the Drones forums.
2 Responses to “Go Ahead And Sell Those Elmos…”
September 27th, 2006 at 12:30 am
LOL I think you may be onto something there with the Oscar the Grouch thing…
September 27th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Oscar is fine - I’m sure the Count knows something about money since he’s good with numbers. Bert just seems like he’s a tightwad. Ernie seems like the kind of guy who would blow the monthly budget on his bottlecap collection, and the Cookie Monster can’t control himself, period. Your kids are walking a fine line in terms of which puppet to emulate.