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590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

finance.yahoo.com

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Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#31

Post by thaumasiotes »

SimianSci wrote: post #21

It used to be that the thought process of receiving a portion of sale money before delivering any product allowed the company to pay suppliers and keep afloat as they drove towards the finish line of delivery. Now it seems the grifting-meta is to make promises around a product with no plans on delivering it, take in pre-order money, and then just park it in an investment account to grow during a bull market. By the t…

> Now it seems the grifting-meta is to make promises around a product with no plans on delivering it, take in pre-order money, and then just park it in an investment account to grow during a bull market. By the time the grift comes due, your "investment" will have grown to a magnitude where even if you are forced to pay it back, you will have made a tidy profit.

There's never been a time where that would work. A damages theory can't make you cough up your stock market gains, but unjust enrichment will do it.

Put into an example, it's always been black-letter law that if I misappropriate $1,000 from you, put it on red 27, and turn it into $36,000, I owe you all $36,000. If I'm less lucky than that and turn it into $50, I owe you all $1,000.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#32

Post by Meekro »

sameers wrote: post #4

It feels analogous to giving alms to a religious institution at the end of a prayer service - you don't get anything material for it in return, but maybe for the faithful, that's not the point?

Tithing is not fraud. People give money to support the church, pay the pastor, and so that the church can use it to care for the needy in the community. Good churches do, in fact, use the money for all of the above.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#33

Post by thinkingtoilet »

catigula wrote: post #22
sameers wrote: post #4

It feels analogous to giving alms to a religious institution at the end of a prayer service - you don't get anything material for it in return, but maybe for the faithful, that's not the point?

Tithing often involves the implicit or explicit promise of rewards from God, both spiritual and material.

That's how this is framed as well.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#34

Post by david422 »

sameers wrote: post #4

It feels analogous to giving alms to a religious institution at the end of a prayer service - you don't get anything material for it in return, but maybe for the faithful, that's not the point?

There's another article somewhere indicating how Maga is furious because their money is lost. Someone commented on the article something like - "I'm MAGA and I'm not mad at all".

Which is perfectly in line with your comment.

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#36

Post by gruez »

toasty228 wrote: post #12
paulpauper wrote: post #3

This is always common. Do a huge preorder and then delay. Given how high interest rates are, this is profitable.

Not so common, any other president pulling that shit pretty much anywhere in the world would instantly lose all credibility and most likely would have to resign. But then again this dude shits himself on live TV and shilled cans of beans from the oval office

>But then again this dude shits himself on live TV [...]

source?

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#37

Post by GolfPopper »

thaumasiotes wrote: post #31
SimianSci wrote: post #21

It used to be that the thought process of receiving a portion of sale money before delivering any product allowed the company to pay suppliers and keep afloat as they drove towards the finish line of delivery. Now it seems the grifting-meta is to make promises around a product with no plans on delivering it, take in pre-order money, and then just park it in an investment account to grow during a bull market. By the t…

> Now it seems the grifting-meta is to make promises around a product with no plans on delivering it, take in pre-order money, and then just park it in an investment account to grow during a bull market. By the time the grift comes due, your "investment" will have grown to a magnitude where even if you are forced to pay it back, you will have made a tidy profit. There's never been a time where that would work. A dama…

In practice how often does that actually happen to well-heeled, well-connected fraudsters?

Re: 590k buyers paid $59M for Trump's gold phone, but not one has shipped

#40

Post by threatofrain »

Meekro wrote: post #32
sameers wrote: post #4

It feels analogous to giving alms to a religious institution at the end of a prayer service - you don't get anything material for it in return, but maybe for the faithful, that's not the point?

Tithing is not fraud. People give money to support the church, pay the pastor, and so that the church can use it to care for the needy in the community. Good churches do, in fact, use the money for all of the above.

The above argument is exploring the framing that the Trump phone is not fraud because it is more like tithing. As long as Trump puts it to good use then it's all good.
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