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Lately, I’ve been contemplating how prices shape the world as we experience it. Prices affect us at an individual and macro level. They influence choices ranging from clothing, decisions to own (or not) car and frequency of routine purchases like a morning cup of coffee en route to work and haircuts. Read more
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It’s tempting in the heat of a negotiation after you’ve made your first pitch and set the price but the party comes back and vaguely asks for more so now you have several dials to turn but one shines brighter than all the others. As the “room” gets hot with rising tension, you reach for the dial in the hopes of alleviating the pressure and hearing a resounding yes for reaching an agreement but to your surprise, the other party turns away leaving you hanging with your offer. Read more
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When a popular artist or band goes on tour, it is often the case that tickets sell out on Ticketmaster sometimes even as soon as they go on sale but only to subsequently make a strong come back in availability on secondary marketplaces like Stubhub, sometimes at an astronomical mark-up from face value. While revenue from ticket sales from primary ticket sellers go toward the the artist and other stakeholders directly, on secondary markets, the additional surplus is captured by the reseller, whether it be a scalper, professional broker or fan trying to make a profit. The question is if prices prevailing on the secondary market are higher holding all else equal, then why don’t the artists set higher initial prices? Read more
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Ticketmaster made headlines over the past two weeks for mishandling ticket sales for an upcoming Taylor Swift tour but with all the griping, it was easy to lose sight of the main issues causing it. Each person I asked offered a different hypothesis of the issue tossing around phrases like monopoly and high prices. Read more
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One of my less graceful decisions in 2020 was at the height of the pandemic when I purchased a fifty-count package of white paper I needed for my impulse pet painting project at a whopping price of seventy-five dollars. To put this in perspective, a five-hundred pack of white paper currently sells on Amazon, Target and Bestbuy for under ten dollars total. The same package of Washi paper itself sells for under twenty on Amazon. As someone with a well-earned reputation for buying only what I need and for taking care to evaluate price on the basis of quality and value, this was out of step for me. But there I was exiting the store with a stupid grin on my face descending down the stairwell while performing a royal wave of goodbyes toward the store owner. Read more
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On Thursday, November 11th, 2021, I joined a group of strangers at the Central Bus Station in Tel Aviv to embark on a camping trip in the Negev desert. This was a no-frills with everything on your back sort of experience over three days. There are glamping trips and then there is camping, and there was nothing glamorous about this. It was a rollercoaster of blissful highs, painful lows, and fraught with tears, and even a salty reservoir of utter joy. Read more
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Prisoner of the State at Lincoln Center June 7th, 2019. 
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