Value Proposition for Harpers Bazaar Magazine

I subscribe to a number of fashion magazines. Mostly I like to see the advertisements from big fashion companies. Currently my Harper's Bazaar subscription is expiring. This was originally not a magazine I knew much about. Their parent company published other famous fashion rags. So I decided to give it a try.

The current issue is almost 250 pages. The cover is of Megan Thee Stallion. There is a big article on Martha Stewart. Apparently Lenny Kravitz is the music director. Not sure why a print magazine needs a music directory. Still, they don't just seem to do stories on young/skinny stars.

The cover price of the magazine is around $71. It is definitely not worth that much. However I am sure I paid much less. I've got an offer to renew at $12 a year. That equates to $1 an issue. Not bad but not good. I have a more competitive offer of $8 a year if I agree to a "continuous subscription". That is one where they auto-renew me. I definitely don't like that.

I suspect they are charging a nominal subscription price to make sure they are only sending the magazine out to those who really want to read it. I want to read it. They money it takes to run the magazine surely comes from all the big advertisers in it. They do need to curate the subscriber base to convince those advertisers to spend the big bucks on them.

Not sure how I will proceed. I like a good value. I love a bargain. $8 a year for 12 months of 250 page print magazines delivered to me feels like a steal. Worst case is that I will grow tired of the magazine and need to cancel it after one year.

Typical Icy Saturday

Momoko was not feeling well this morning. So she decided not to eat lunch with us. My brother and I drove North to get some Chik Fil A. The line was extra long today. We had to drive up to a single speaker to place our order. Normally they have people out with iPads taking orders, making it go faster.

A girl approached us with flyers and said the prices rose but they could not update their board. We told her we did not need a flyer with updated prices. We got our meals and went to Little Kat's apartment. The sidewalk was icy and it was treacherous to walk around the building to Little Kat's back door. I had him apply salt.

Back at home, I had Momoko drive my Benz for the first time. She took a while to familiarize herself with the controls. She set some preset seat positions in the memory at position 2. We drove off down the street. We briefly got onto a main side street. But Momoko immediately pulled off into a cul de sac. Then she turned around and came home.

Internet Service Provider Shenanigans

Comcast provides our Internet service at home. Last month they started some shenanigans. They kept alerting me that we were going over our 1.2TB monthly transfer limit. The crime is that this is some arbitrary new limit that Comcast dreamed up. If we go over, Comcast says they will fine us. They encourage us to "upgrade" to unlimited data transfers. This is a classic shake down.

The best way to deal with unscrupulous companies like this is to have options. So I contacted Verizon and said I want some FIOS Internet service. It is not that Verizon is any less of a crook than Comcast. But I will pit crook against crook to win my business. Verizon is scheduled to come by in a week and set up our Internet. We will test that out.

I am going to call Comcast with my brother and see what they can do about these data overages. If they continue the shake down, I will just tell them to cancel our service. That usually puts you in touch with the team with the motivation and authority to make you happy and keep you as a customer. We just got to make sure it is not a bluff on our part, and we already have a backup Internet solution in place.

GameStonks

This past year, shares of GameStop sold as low as $2 and change. The CEO from Chewy joined the board of directors. Stock price shot up to the high teens. Even might have tested $20. Then the Reddit WallStreetBets crew got involved. I saw the stock ramp up to over $70. It was time to act.

First I had to sell off some of my Tesla puts to generate cash. Then I loaded up on puts, betting against GameStop. Later the stock went on a rampage. I remember one morning the stock topped $500 in premarket. By the time the market opened, it was over $400 a share. Ouch.

Brokers like Robin Hood and TD Ameritrade restricted trade. They would not let users buy shares of GameStop. That put the brakes on the rise. So the price went down to $350. Next day closed at $250. I think it then went to $150.

Recently it appeared to bottom out at $50. I would have loved to still have my puts then. I sold out when the stock was just above $100. Don't get me wrong. I had a small profit. Maybe 15%. But it could have been 50% or bigger.

I was toying with the idea of going long when the stock was $100. Good thing I did not. Maybe I will wait until it is back to $5. Then I can back the truck up. But it will still be a short term trade. This company is going bankrupt, regardless of the Chewy guy.