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Monetize me
August 11, 2006
Ron Steen, "a really good guy" with "a dynamic personality" and "no drug or alcohol problems" (and a car that "is completely paid off"), is breaking new ground in the derivatives market by packaging himself as a financial instrument and selling himself at eBay. For $100,000, you get 2% of Ron's total earnings throughout his lifetime. (He'll use the money to pay for college.) Judging from his eBay writeup, Ron has a firm grasp of neither net present value nor the possibility of premature death, but he's only a high school kid, and he clearly has gumption. His big mistake, though, is setting a fixed price rather than allowing an auction. If a liquid market for trading shares of an individual's future earnings was established, that would be pretty interesting. I mean, if the young could cash in on their adult potential while they were still young, then maybe youth wouldn't be wasted on them anymore. At the very least, they could dramatically improve the quality of their drug and alcohol problems.
UPDATE: Steen has been booted off eBay.
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Comments
Sounds a bit like the student loan system we have in the UK today.
Posted by: Ben King ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.roughtype.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at August 11, 2006 09:44 AM
Clearly, the young man does not yet know what a mortgage payment is and how painful those initial January checks will be for him (and a possible future spouse who will likely be dismayed at this unusual income carve-out), however small they are.
I do hope that he includes some type of pre-payment option (at a handsome return) in his paperwork. Perhaps my age and financial conservatism are showing here.
Posted by: bobm at August 11, 2006 10:05 AM
Ronn Stein is "a really good guy" with "a dynamic personality" who has "never heard of the SEC" and therefore has "broken the law in multiple ways."
-t
Posted by: Tom Lord at August 11, 2006 10:50 AM
GET A LIFE YOU FOOLS!!!!!!!!! RON STEEN IS THE COOLEST PERSON YOU WILL EVER MEET!
thanks
Posted by: your mooommm at August 27, 2006 03:07 AM
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