What in the world? $350,00 plus commission, taxes, etc. so well over $425,000 when things are all counted and they "were expecting to pay more".
We take home several lessons from this:
1. It was Hong Kong and not Vegas or Atlantic City which wil shed a spotlight on the Vegas and Atlantic City economies.
2. It was bought for a crowd drawing appeal item and probably will bring folks into the venue...so we have to ask where is this marvel to excess going to be placed?
This later question is a big issue. How far would people be willing to travel to view said glove, (as a marketer), be willing to travel to see it? It obviously will be a big draw but let's say that the town of Bay City, Michigan (population 50,000) bought it and put it on Main and Center streets to draw people downtown to shop. And here is the marketing rub. After a month or so, all of Bay City's shopping traffic will have seen the glove and unless you want to go from afar to Bay City to see it then the glove purchase won't pay out. Or will it?
A study showed that the average downtown Bay City shopper spent just under $60 per shopping visit. That means the glove would have to pay out to the tune of 7,000 new shoppers and not just viewers. Amortize the glove's attraction to 10 years and thats about 2 new shoppers a day. Fairly likely and very possible.
Now with our Hong Kong friend, say he runs a 500 room hotel (for instance) and at Hong Kong rates of $500/night what does he have to pull in? Maybe 1000 more room bookings in total? Put that to an average stay of 2 nights, meals etc., and he is down to perhaps ONE (1) more booking a day FOR A YEAR to make this pay out.
Nice buy. A steal actually. Our Hong Kong friend probably estimates that he will make 10 times profit on his investment and that's not counting street traffic who may dine at the hotel or otherwise use it's shops or facilities in some way. The word of mouth publicity is probably alone worth the purchase price.
Did you hear that Vegas? Atlantic City? Penny foolish.