Ep. 1391: Where we feel the endowment effect

-It's Monday, November 25th, 2013. This is the 404 Show on CNET. I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -How's it going everyone? Thanks for tuning in to the show. We have a short week of shows. -Yup. -Very short week. -Uh-hmm. -That's what you get on the Thanksgiving holiday week. -So we're going two shows, right? Monday, today and tomorrow. -Today and tomorrow because we're gonna take a little early Thanksgiving break. But thanks for joining us from Monday and Tuesday, that's pretty awesome. -Yup. -How was your weekend, sir? -It was good. I went to a baby shower over the weekend. I'd imagined all three of us could be doing a lot of those this year, you know? -Guys don't go to baby showers. -See, that's what I was thinking. -Yeah, you screwed up. -I'm pretty sure guys won't go into baby showers up until last year. -No. -And they've all started happening. -Time out. -I've been going to a lot of them. -It's not like a-- I don't think it's a guy or a girl thing. I just don't' think. -Well the bridal shower is definitely a female-- -Clearly men are not supposed to-- -But baby showers-- -Yeah, it's unisex but. -Is it though? -I don't know. I mean, I have plenty of friends with babies and I have never been, like close friends. -Yeah. -Like friends who I would be, you know, do anything for, except show up to their baby shower. -Right. Pretty much anything with the word shower in it. I don't wanna be going to. -So what were you doing there? Were you like holding presents? I don't understand. -I went because a friend of mine had a baby shower and the bride and the groom-- the mother and the father were both there and they were throwing the party. -For where you the only-- -I was personally invited there. I'm like the [unk] was also invited. -Okay. -So we went and it was fine, you know. Obviously, all of our friends were there so it was fun. But yeah, this is something that I was telling Ariel before the show started today. It's kind of strange this whole concept of buying presents online for-- as a registry. -Okay. -Because they have a registry. They had one for their wedding and for their baby shower as well. -Okay. -But they set one up on Amazon, which is fine, you know. I mean obviously-- -That's what I do. -everyone has Amazon. But it's weird because I feel like the whole idea of giving a present is that you're support to sort of think about what they would need and appreciate and then you wrap it up and you give it to them, it's this whole process. But now it's been so automated to this point where they just have a list of things. You click a button and it will automatically charges your credit card through Prime and you never even see the present. -It's the greatest thing ever. -It's great for you. -Yeah. -It's expensive for everybody else. It just get shipped straight to you-- -Why is it expensive? -Well, it's expensive 'cause obviously those gifts cost money but it's also costing your time and I just wish that there is a way that, I don't know, I just wanted to buy them a present and bring it to them. -I mean, is that a foreign thing now? It seems like-- -I don't understand why you're complaining. Are you complaining that it's too easy to do? -Yeah, I'm complaining that it's kinda taken all the meaning out of buying a present for someone when you don't even get to see the items you're buying. -Let me break it to you. It never meant anything. It never meant 'cause it's just, you know, it's mindless. They register the baby needs-- -Right. -Something they can wear for like literally three months 'cause they grow so freaking fast. -Right. -So, come on, I mean-- -I mean, I don't even know if-- -If you get like a personalized like toy chest, maybe that's a little bit more personal. -Right. Yeah, that's-- the personalization of it is what I'm talking about. -You don't have to buy off the registry. You can make the extra effort and do it if you want to. -They said they prefer to have items purchased off the register so that they wouldn't have to bring any things home from the baby shower. -So there you have it. Right. It's actually really efficient and smart and convenient. -Yeah. I need to not go to anymore of those. -I mean you've been through weddings recently, right? -Yeah, sure. -You've been through like your first couple weddings now. -Uh-hmm. -You're not surprised how that works, right? -No. But it also seems really impersonal there too. I understand that it's-- -I mean all you want on wedding is money, as far as I'm concern. -Right. I just didn't even know if my name ended up on the package and that got sent to them. It might just come in a brown Amazon box like-- -No. They do. That there's like a [unk] there's like a gift. It says like, gift-- you just got married, right? -Yeah, yeah, yeah. -Right? -Yeah, I did. Yeah. -So you got plenty of gifts from people. -Uh-huh. -And you got them through Amazon, I would imagine right? -We were registered but we did the whole mail to our address thing. But I mean, it's a little different because we were on the other side of the coast, our wedding was on the West Coast. -Right. But I'm just saying like you got gifts and you knew where they came from. You knew you gave them to you. -When they bought them online. -Yeah, oh, yeah. I mean you can check. I personally don't know anything about that stuff. I don't-- -They don't even care. -He's just out to launch with guys. -Yeah, they don't even care. They just sit down with the box cutter and open their presents. -That's the fun man. -I need to get married and have a baby. That's the last thing I'm-- -You're so-- why are you-- I mean. -I want kids. -Yeah, I guess. I mean that's why I got married. -Yeah. -To just get cool stuff. And that's why anyone gets married. -Get the cash. -Right. -I mean, come on. All right, so you can obsess with that I guess for, you know, thinking about that over your Thanksgiving break. -Ariel, you had a much better weekend though. -Oh, yeah. -Because you had to the Kanye West show. -I did go to the Kanye West show. -It's a lot more fun than the baby shower. -Yeah. -I don't know about that. But anyway, how was that? Where did you see him? -Madison Square Garden. It was cool 'cause the Tribe open. I was more excited to see Tribe-- -Oh, hell yeah. -Yeah. It's their very last show ever and the brought out the lovely Bonita Applebum, which looked amazing. -Wow. -Yeah, it was cool. -From the front through, right? You could definitely see it if you-- -Oh, yeah, yeah. You can see it from the front and the back. -Yeah, you put up pretty good Instagram video. -I see everything man. Yeah, if you wanna see a video, you could check out my Instagram, I think you can watch it at work. -Yeah. So how was it? I mean, are you-- obviously we're all fans of Kanye West. -Uh-huh. -What? -There's one album to another-- -What? -What? You don't like Kanye West? -No. -Okay. Well, Ariel and I are fans of Kanye West. -No, you said you don't like them either. You don't like his new album. -I'm not a huge Yeezus fan but I'm not gonna lie. I really love the rest of his music. -Oh, okay. No, I can't stand them. But anyway, go on. -Well, obviously, I would never listen to Yeezus on my own. It's not a huge fan of that album. -Yeah. -But I'd imagined, it'd be quite a spectacle to see live. Was it cool? -You know, actually-- okay, so seeing him performed Yeezus live, I have a better appreciation for that album just because you hear it all loud and industrial, you know, and I feel like that's the environment that he meant to play that music in. -Yeah. -But listening to the album itself-- I'm okay. You know what I mean. But it was weird because listening-- when he performed or when they are playing some stuff from college drop-out, it didn't sound as good like I wanted to hear more Yeezus stuff, which is weird. -Right. -'Cause I love college drop-out. -Yeah, me too. That's one of my favorite. That and the dark fantasy are two are my favorites. -Yeah, yeah. -The weird thing is though, I saw a lot of reviews for it online and a lot of my friends went too so they posted photos on Instagram. -Uh-hmm. -And a lot of the photos show him in a mask. -Yeah. -It almost looked like a gummy mask. -Yeah. He wore-- -He got like a zipper on the mouth and everything. -Yup. -Just can't imagine the music would sound too good when he sing-- -He went through like three different masks. -Yeah. -Yeah, and one was like studded or something. It was really weird but he didn't take off the mask until like I say the last three songs of the show. -What? -Yeah, he had it-- -Kind of explains why he's music always sounds so muffled because-- -Maybe because it wasn't Kanye until later in the show. -Until the end-- -Yeah. -He paid someone else. -And then he was like, I'm only sending out my stunt double for the first three quarters of the show. -Yeah. I bet he also had this 30-minute just-- -Oh, yeah. -Tribe complaining about random stuff. -Oh, yeah. He went on a rant for a while. -What he complained about? -He was complaining about fashion designers not letting him into the industry and like people in Paris not letting him get down and-- -Right. -What a loser. -he lost his Louis Vuitton deal or something like that man, I kinda stop-- -He was complaining about not being a loud into an industry he has absolutely no experience at. -Yeah, pretty much. -That's great. I love hearing about-- -Yeah, yeah. -He should do a one-man show, where he just complains about stuff. -Yeah, that was-- -Like extravagant stuff that he has no business being involved and whatsoever. -Yeah. I mean, speaking of that, you put this story about the Zappos thing in the run down. You wanna explain what happened? -I just wanna know when someone's gonna like just stand up to the guy and be like, "That's enough, just stop it." -Yeah. -Zappos kinda did that. Kanye West went on a little tirade a few days ago, where he gotten to an argument with the head of Zappos and Kanye publicly said that the head of Zappos, him and his entire company, they're all selling shit products and the whole business is based around selling shit products, one of the most successful online retailers in the history of the internet. -Right. -Selling nothing but garbage, right? -Yeah. -Well, Zappos fired back. -Uh-hmm. -And they actually decided to take Kanye's opinion and put it towards something maybe he could buy and they listed a shit products, which sells for $100,000 and it's actually just a plunger. -Yeah. -'Cause I guess that's a shit product as literally. -I get it. -Yeah, you get it. But it made a good statement because I appreciate people standing up to Kanye. He has this like sort of God-complex thing going on. -Right. -And I'm glad someone shoved the back on his face little bit. -But the thing is-- -And he bought five of them. -Amazon doesn't-- I mean Zappos doesn't even sell their own products. -I know. -They're not a retailer. It's like saying Amazon sell shit products. -Right, exactly. -They don't make anything,-- -Of course, it's crazy. -which is the funny part of this story. -I mean that kinda goes about saying like, obviously that statement's flawed. -Right. -Every conceivable way you examined it but I just don't understand someone who is like supposed to be so influential and smart and brilliant in what he does to make these statements and not really, you know-- -Yeah. -they're just sort of like knee-jerk statements. He's talking just to talk. -Did you watch his-- this is such old news. But did you watch his interview on Jimmy Kimmel like a month ago maybe. -No. I don't give this guy the time of the day man. -The thing is every time he talks, whether it's only like an interview, spoken or written, it's-- I feel like he always just had this stream of consciousness and he says a lot of relevant things about crossing over into the fashion industry-- -Uh-hmm. -and not being able to let in to certain things in this podcast where he bitches about the Zappos exec. He also makes a lot of comparisons to 12 years of slave. He compares himself to that character in the movie. And it's just-- I mean, he should just stick to music. -So, basically we're just saying he would just want you to go away forever is what we're saying. -Yeah. Or just listen to the music, enjoy them for what he'd makes and don't worry about how Kim Kardashian doesn't have a star in the Walk of Fame. -Is that an-- that's a problem. -That was a big deal, yeah. -To him? -Those big issue on the Jimmy Kimmel show is that she wasn't getting her own Walk of Fame. It's just celebrity. It's not just Kanye West. It's everything that people pay attention to. -No, of course, but do you think like you just become so famous so quick that you're just like completely delusional? -I think it's a character. I think like Kanye has to maintain his sort of attitude because it gets a lot of ears and people pay attention to stuff that's flamboyant. -Yeah. -I mean he's always been like that even when he wasn't really well-known, he was just always talking about how great he is, you know. -Yeah. -I'd really wanna be friends with a guy like him. -It kinda worked too. I think maybe everyone just started getting super arrogant. -I think that's-- -Once he started talking like that, people believe in that he is. -Exactly. And I think that the reason why he's so big is because he tells people how much of a genius he is and I think people just go with it, you know. -Yeah, right. -It's weird. -Genius? -Yeah. -I mean, I think like Da Vinci, Kanye, right? That work, that's like how I think. -Yeah, I guess so. -I don't know. I'm getting, he sucks. All right, I wanna talk about this thing called a Kano computer kit. -Oh, this is cool. -This is really cool. This was sent in by our buddy Tom, the Instagator, thank you Tom for sending this in. There's a Kickstarter campaign that takes the mindset of a products like erector sets and Lego Mindstorms had and if you appreciate that kind of do-it-yourself mentality, a Kano computer kit is probably right up your alley. What they're trying to do is basically send you parts of a computer that you build yourself. So it's not exactly like you go out and buy all the components yourself. -Uh-hmm. -But you actually just get the computer kit in a box. So it's essentially a desktop computer that comes disassembled. -Right. -And you have to go in and put it all together. So there really isn't any of the complexities of like incompatibilities with, you know, motherboards and interfaces. You just basically buy the kit and you build your own computer. -Right. -And that's a kind of smart idea that I really dig. I think it's a lot of fun. And especially-- I know we've talked about this before. People don't know dick about computers anymore, right? Like there's-- I feel like in 10, 20 years, there's gonna be a dearth of like IT people that because everyone is used just turning in iPad, it works, I don't have to worry about it. -Uh-hmm. -We were lucky 'cause our generation grew up and we had kinda know where or how to install RAM or how to do something like that. So the Kano kit kind of encourages that philosophy. -So is this mainly for kids or for anyone that just wants to learn that program. -I think it's for anyone. I mean, this is not look like something just for kids. I think it's based on anyone. And look, it's not like you're building your own desktop computer. You're kind of just building a raspberry pi sort of knock of thing. But at the end of the day, you're learning a little bit about computing and, you know, that definitely can't hurt. So they're launching their Kickstarter. They've got a goal of a 100 grand and they've knocked that out of the park at the time of this article, they were nearing $600,000. I would imagine it's probably beyond that by now for sure. So go and check it out. We'll have a link in the show notes. -Uh-hmm. I do like the DIY thing that comes along with this just because you and I kinda grew up just we didn't have a lot of money in so we have to built computers for like $300, $400. -I mean and you would-- -You'd source stuff on new way and then this whole project and that's basically how I learned-- -Yeah, I mean-- -how computers work. -I'll be totally honest like I never-- I kinda just started plug in and crap in and see what work, you know. -Yeah. -And sometimes you broke stuffs and sometimes you didn't. -Uh-hmm. -At the end of the day, you were saving so much money 'cause you were just buying the components yourself. -Right. -And not paying Dell or Gateway to just sort of, you know, put something together. -Right. -Yeah, you could save-- you could save like 600-700 bucks. -Yeah. -You know, doing it on a cheap. -It's really cool to see the kinds of things that people are doing with these tiny micro-controller and these computer things. -Yeah. -Over the weekend, I went to a friend's art gallery opening and she was part of the first class of the school for poetic computation and that was a really weird. You never thought you'd hear something a class like that, poetic computation. -What is that? -It's basically the intersection of art and technology. All right? So they were holding at the Eyebeam Gallery over in the west side. -Okay. -It was really cool. Her final project was a 3D-printed gear that was attached to a fake hand that was on a horizontal access, right? So the hand kept going like this and it was sort of dipped down into the end on to a stack of cash to sort of make it rain on whatever was below it. It was really cool. It was just kind of like showing how you can use technology in art and there was a bunch of different projects, not just like that. -Yeah. That's really cool. -It was really cool and this was the six-week course that thought a bunch of kids, you know, they're all into 25. How did it work with these kinds of stuffs. So I'm really psyched to see what else will come out in the future. -That's pretty at it. -Yeah. -All right. I want-- we're gonna bring up this topic because this is something we've spoken about a lot in the past. -Uh-hmm. -You know, we work at CBS, so obviously TV is a big part of the corporation seemed to do pretty well with their primetime selections and whatnot. And I think like 60 minutes is really the only reason why we have a job. But anyway, there is evidence that is really undeniable TV-- the TV business as a whole is not doing as well as it used to. -Uh-hmm. -And the numbers are irrefutable. The evidence is staggering. Less people are watching TV. -Yeah. -And there's nothing you can say or do that will change that. It's kind of amazing. There's a business inside the article we're talking about. 2013 was a pretty terrible year for cable TV and TV businesses as a whole. The Pay TV industry according to an analysis just sectioning off Q3 of this year. Pay TV has had the worst 12-month stretch ever. -Uh-hmm. -Not just for like the last 10 years. Not since the introduction of the internet, ever. All the major TV providers lost collective $113,000 subscribers in the 3rd quarter of 2013. It also includes internet subscribers as well, that to me is more shocking. You would think that it would be one and not the other. But that's not the case. All in all, since 2010, five million people ended their cable and broadband subscription together. -Uh-hmm. -That's a lot. You would think that maybe it wouldn't-- you wouldn't net a lost because you maybe would have people unhooking from cable but then going up with the broadband internet, but no. People are unplugging. Time Warner Cable lost 306,000 TV subscribers in Q3. CEO for Charter Communication says that, they lost 5.5 million subscribers. -Uh-hmm. -Okay? But what's really sort of disconcerting and really shocking is that some of this people don't-- they claimed that they're surprised about this sort of thing like the people are actually ditching cable and stuff like that. -Right. -I think that's part of the problem. I think when you have people on a really high places who don't necessarily embrace the changing trends in how people are consuming media-- -Right. -And they find these numbers, you know, disturbing or what have you that to me just is like the sign of the times like this is why you can't have nice things anymore because you refuse to understand where the medium is going. -That just means they don't understand the source of what the problem, which is basically that people don't wanna make appointments to watch television everywhere. -Right. No one wants to be like, I gotta get home so I can watch XYZ. -Right, right. And that, and then they also want archives of past episodes to watch at any time, that makes sense to anyone who seen internet video. -Right. -I think the main one problem with this Business Week article, and there was one before that sort of talk about that terrible 12-month stretch, is that they sort of paint cord cutters as people that just can't afford cable television. -See that's the-- that's what-- -And I hate it when journalists do this because it's not those people. It's a completely different segment of population that just wants quality television and they wanna be able to choose what they wanna watch and not have to have these stuffs spoon fed to them doesn't necessarily mean that they can't afford $100-subcription a month. -I think it's-- I think, I mean you're definitely right about that. I also think it's tough to measure that like how do you figure out who's doing it for economical reasons and who's doing it for progressive reasons. -Right, right. -So, you know, again though you can't make a sweeping statement that just says it's all because no one has any money. -Right. -It's not the case. -And I would actually, personally, I would pay as much as it would cost to buy a Time Warner Cable subscription every month and things like Amazon Prime accounts or Amazon video streaming accounts. -Sure. -And Hulu and NetFlix, all of the things. It's just not a good model anymore to have one system for payment. -Right. I also, I mean, you know, you look at it like this though when you flip it on that side and say, okay, well, we understand the cable cutting. We understand people did not giving a crap about regular TV. I know Mark just did it too. -Uh-hmm. -The internet stuff is kind of interesting to me because it's like, all right, well if you're cutting your cable, you still need a really nice internet speed. -Right. -If that's gonna be the main channel for media consumption, that's kinda be a pretty respectable and sort of high functioning. -We have to. I mean we had the Chromecast in this studio a couple of months ago when it came out. -Right. -And our internet connection was pretty decent in that studio and we still weren't able to stream the shows that we wanted so you have to have a pretty fast connection. -So to that point, I wonder, okay. Is it 4G? Well, I don't think so 'cause 4G is still isn't great. -Yeah. -It's good. It's good for your mobile apps. -Uh-hmm. -But I couldn't rely on a 4G signal to power my home. -Right. -With all the consoles and all the other crap I get going. Never. I can never do that. -Right. -There's cable free Wi-Fi like, I know, you know, Time Warner Cable has free Wi-Fi spots throughout the city, Optimum has it in Jersey and other places in New York. So is it that? I don't think it's that either. -No, because people wanna watch cable TV elsewhere besides the coffee shops. -So then what is it like our people just like doing-- they're just going to Starbucks for eight hours a day and just leeching off their stuff? I don't know. -Yeah. I'm not sure either. -I just don't understand. I have no idea who, like who are you people that are doing that? Who are you people that are just cutting everything? What are you doing? What's-- like how were you, I get it. No one needs these things to live. -Right. -But going from all that to nothing, to me seems kind of-- -It's definitely a bigger hassle because then you have to figure out when things are publishing and you're gonna have to schedule your time around TV anyway to just look for the content now. -Or depending on Starbucks hours. -Right, yeah. -You're gonna have to like change your whole life around. -Or hotel hours. -Do you use public Wi-Fi? I mean that sort of something that we always recommend against anyway. -No. That's like the biggest no, no ever. You just don't do that. -Yeah, especially for security stuff. -Yeah, just don't do that. -Yeah, right. But if you do, there's a pretty good pro-tip, a life hack to find out the password for popular Wi-Fi hotspots around the city. -How's that work? -Just go to their Forsquare page. -Yeah. -So you say you're like, I don't know, at the McDonald's or something and they had like a $10 minimum to use the Wi-Fi for a few hours and you don't have $10. Just use your phone or some other internet device to go to their Foursquare page and most of the time, good guys will go on there and post the Wi-Fi password that usually works. -Well, that's cool. -Nice. -All right. I mean let's just be honest, it's ObamaCare. -Yes, thanks Obama. -This all, all ObamaCare. Right. -Were you just saying this 'cause you're the last person with a cable subscription, right? You still have one on yourself. -Yeah, I do 'cause I need to watch hockey but-- -And HBO. -Yeah. I mean, HBO is like a good part of that. My wife would probably lose her shit if she didn't have Bravo on-demand any given hour. -Right. -Trying to think what other reasons I have actual cable TV for. -I mean, you better think of them, it's an expensive price tag. -I don't know why I do. -You say it's like a $150 every month? -I probably pay that, yeah. That's cable and internet. -Yeah. -You know, and they keeps like, all I-- I remember when I first got files, I was so psyched, I was like, "Man, this is the greatest internet that's super reliable." It's still very reliable but the speed has definitely taking a hit like there's no doubt about it. I'm like, you know what I'll do like a speed test every three months. -Yeah. -And when you look in the history, you can just see over the last two years that the average is like has gone down by a few megabytes per second. But they keep-- and like I hope that this is not true but I would believe in a second. They-- it freaking get slower and slower and then they're trying to sell you on like the boost stuff. -Yeah. -And I'm just like this stuff can't be unrelated. -Well, there's a lot of variables to consider there because broadband speed isn't just a one-- -I know there's nodes everywhere and there's-- -It depends on how fast your computer is and how many other people are using that connection. -Right. That's what it is and I get that but I mean-- -You think they're capping it and lowering the cap every month? -I don't know man. It freaks me out a little bit 'cause I know they do twisted shady stuff like that for mobile carriers. -Right. -Did you know this? Did you know they're like T Mobile, and Mark was telling me this 'cause he frequents a lot of questionable sites on his phone and he said, they've blocked certain sites on the 4G with T Mobile. -Okay. -He says they're like block like video-- like porn sites. They block like porn sites. -Really? -Yeah, not all of them but they block like some of them. -That's-- I mean, that's alarming just because it's a freedom of speech issue, right? I mean, they should be blocking anything on the internet. -Well, that's goes with that saying, what's up like, did he signs something that says, I'm aware you will be blocking and throttling some of the sites I wanna visit. -It's probably a privacy setting or some type of like child-block that he has-- -Not dude. It's like a T Mobile page that says like, "Hey, pervert-- -Hey pervert, yeah you weirdo. -you can't go here. -Yeah, that's strange. -You're gonna clog the tubes up. -And raises a lot of questions about Mark or two. -And in fact, he's trying to do the exact opposite of clogging the tube. I think what it really comes down to it. It's super gross. -You're going down this weird tech-conspiracy theory type of-- -You know, look-- -and you know who it like. I feel like I get this a lot with iPhones too 'cause everyone was like, oh plan obsolescence. Does it happens with iPhones like every-- -Self-destructing. -yeah, 'cause every iOS update come with a self-destruct button that's just counting down to void your warranties to buy a new one. -Yes, yes it does. It does. -Maybe, maybe not. But you're gonna drive yourself crazy thinking about this. -That's built into Android too. It's not that it's--- there's no like built-in things that do that. -Yeah. -It's not. We have like some phones going off here. It's not built into that. What happens is, is that the software rather-- -Can't-- -just can't run on the hardware and I get it. It does run on there. -Uh-hmm. -But it's not designed to maybe take advantage of older hardware-- -Right, right. -which is upsetting. -Well, the problem is not gonna get any better. They need to figure out a way to sort of provide all the a la carte channels, right, which HBO is actually kind of planning on doing for cable cutters. -Not really. No, it's still not happening. -Yeah, but-- -I know because they're not. -They're at least getting a little bit closer to offering sort of separate packages. -So Comcast was doing that but it's still subsidized into your internet subscription price. -Right, right. -So no matter how you slice it, you're still getting jacked and you're still paying it, paying for it in some capacity. -Right. -It's the same thing with all these carriers now have like early upgrade programs, right? -Uh-hmm. -So you buy an iPhone for Verizon, okay? -Uh-hmm. -You're paying in your monthly price of service-- -Right. -that payment, you know, you're able to pay 200 bucks up front for the iPhone but that extra $400 has to be made up in some capacity so you continue to pay it off monthly through your thing. -Right. -But when you're essentially done paying it off, how come the price of Verizon's, you know, month to month doesn't go cheaper? -Yeah. -They just keep doing it and doing it and doing it. And you start walking funny because you're getting taking advantage of like that. -Yeah, I know. -It's upsetting. -You can always not have a phone. -No, you need a phone, you need a phone. Pretty sure you need a phone. -Well, speaking of buying stuff, we're coming into Black Friday week, which is obviously an oxymoron how can one day last minute of the week-- -Black Friday started on Halloween. -Yeah, so it's been going for a pretty long time now and the sales are coming out so a lot of newspapers are putting sales early so you can get the Costco items, you can get that sheet of all the things that are gonna be on sale on Friday. But, you know, as we're going into that week, I want everyone to sort of keep in mind something called the endowment effect and that's what this next article that I found on fast companies about. So have you heard of the endowment effect before? -No. Go on. -It's kind of this strange shopping effect that psychologists have defined. And it sort of that moment where you assigned more value to something just because you own it, just because you have it in your hands. So it's a lot of time it happens with people's smartphones like they think they're better than other people because they now have an iPhone. -Okay. -The endowment effect, right? And psychologists have gone so far to say that you don't even have to own the product in order for you to have that feeling of entitlement. Just touching it, merely touching an item can make you feel closer to it and then feel endowed because of that. And, you know, so these effect comes, you know, into play during Black Friday sales, of course. But it also raises questions which is, can you ask who feel the endowment effect by touch? Just by touching things on a screen, on a tablet, and that sort of what these two scientists from Boston College have sort of set out to do. They're wondering, can we, you know, manipulate objects on the screen, the fact that we could do that now by twisting and turning stuff on a tablet. Does that make us feel a little bit more connected to those items even before we buy them? And then when we're shopping for it, does it make us wanna purchase those things more? -Well, I think, like if I'm searching, if I'm you know, kind of nuddling, buying something. -Uh-huh. -You know, you kinda like look at all the photos-- -Right. -and like, "oh, that's nice." In your head, you're like, "Oh, that's comforting." -Right, right. -I like the back of that. -Yeah, I think that they will-- -If that happens that's coming to play here is the fact that when you have tablet-friendly screens, usually they'll take a lot more 360 photos that you can use that sort of touch effect. -Okay. -You know what I mean, you zooming in by pinching it. You can twist it around and see the 360 shot of it. -Okay. -So maybe that makes you wanna buy a little bit more. But regardless, just keep this in mind because everything you see at Black Friday sales, you probably more inclined to purchase just because it's cheaper and not necessarily 'cause you want. -Sure. -You know, it's like if you've ever been to sample sale or something like that-- -Right. -you-- just the fact that it's like, you know, 50 percent off makes you think you need it more. -Right. Like I don't need that at all but it's so freaking cheap-- -Yeah. -that I might as well just buy it 'cause there's value and owning it, right? -Exactly, yeah. And with that being said, do-- either of you guys have a Costco card that I can borrow 'cause I'm actually going to Costco on Friday. -No. You can't borrow it though. You're never gonna believe it that you're me. -That's true, that's true. -That shows your photo on actually. -It's got a photo. -What about you Ariel, do you have a Costco card I can borrow. -I don't think you could-- -No Costco card man. -and you can't pass it to him either. -Maybe. I mean, we'll see that the Asian thing going for us. -Not really. -But I'll be at Costco on Friday. I mean after I talk to all this garbage on people that-- -You're crazy. What are you doing? -are going. It's not for me. It's for Penny. -It doesn't matter. You're walking into the lion's den man. -No, I know. It's like going into whole foods on Thanksgiving, a terrible idea. -What can I do to talk you out of it? -You can't. Calendar is already been set. She wants to get this thing called the Vitamix, which we've actually reviewed on CNET's appliance division. -What is it? -It's this industrial grade blender that apparently is used as Java Juice. You know, if you go to Java Juice, it's those giant blenders. That was the brands that they used called Vitamix. -Okay. -And she's been really into it like making soups and like making all those stuff, you know. -Right. -Apparently, you have to get a Vitamix for your cooking things. -All right, so I'm assuming it's on sale. -It's $50 off, but it's also a $350 blender, which is crazy to me. -It's crazy, but-- -I asked her why she wanted to buy it and she was like-- -I don't know. -Well, in some of the marketing stuff, they say that it's the blades are so sharp inside the blender that it can actually grind rocks into dust. That was the reason that she gave me why she wanted to buy it. Planning on eating a lot of rocks? Who cares? -So that's what you gotta ask yourself that question and you gotta say to yourself, is it worth the $50 discount to go through the trauma that will be Black Friday? -A hundred percent. -No, it is not. -No it's not. -I would pay more than not have to deal with that. -I know. If my girlfriend offered that service, I would certainly-- -Have you ever done this before? -No. I've never been to any Black Friday sales before. -Goodbye. -Good luck man. -I mean, goodbye, that's all I can say. -So that's like coming in to work-- -Yeah. -What's wrong with you? -I don't know. I'm actually hoping that they're gonna have a good sale on TVs while I'm there. Maybe I can pick something up for me along the way. -Yeah. -Yeah. -This is a good Black Friday to buy a TV. -Uh-hmm. -Yeah. So either I'll come back with the TV or I'll be dead. -So, win-win. I mean-- -Didn't that happened last year? Some security guard on Walmart were trampled-- -Oh, everyone always does. -in New York. It feels like-- yeah, there's an urban legend that comes out every year about Black Friday. Is that true? -I wish you did have cable 'cause South Park is in the middle of like a 3-part Black Friday epic tale right now. -Yeah. -It's really good. It's just about people dying on Black Friday. -So they don't offer any good tips for how to survive it. -No. It's a cartoon that's like totally crazy, yes. -What about you Ariel? Have you ever lined up for Black Friday sale? -Never. Nope. The only thing I've ever done for Black Friday was film the lines. -Okay. -What's crazy about Black Friday is that, you know, it's the thing like, it's the insanity. It's not like yeah, there's some deals to be had, you know-- -Yeah. -But unless you're waiting in line at 3:30 in the morning outside of like a Best Buy or something. All of those are gonna get, you know, taken. They don't give like rain checks. You can't walk in around like 2:30 in the afternoon and be like, "Do you have like a 32-inch TV for 99 bucks?" -Yeah. -They're not gonna be like, "Oh, come back in a week. We have more in stock." -Right. It's always 10 available. -You just gotta be there, that's it. -Uh-hmm, for the first people. Yeah, I'm not going early in the morning either. I refuse, you know. -Oh, dude. You're-- -We're gonna be going like at 10:00. -Oh, forget it man. -But no one is going to Costco for a blender? -You heard it. Am I right, or he's done. -Yeah. -Except for, you know, Black Friday. -Yeah, you're probably you're not gonna get-- -This is gonna be the worst day of your life. -Yeah. And you definitely won't get that TV you want if you go super late. -Yeah. You're not gonna get-- you're not even gonna get the Vitamin thing. -Yeah. -It's gonna look like a ghost town. -Yeah, I know. -At 10:00? -And there's gonna be an empty warehouses. Costco even here? -It's gonna look like the skeleton of a Costco. -Yeah. -You should go early though. I think you should go early. -Yeah. -What is early for Black Friday though? -That's 7 AM. -Yeah, 7 AM. -7 AM? -Be like 7 AM, you should have already had breakfast like be ready to go. Get there at 7 AM and not like getting up at 7. -It's gonna be really bleak. -I can't believe you're doing this man. You better married this chic. I'm just saying. -Nothing to do with it man. What? -I'm just saying. -Why are you bringing this in the conversation? -Because you said you're only going because-- -You know she listens to the show. -I know. You're saying you're doing this because she wants the blender. -Yeah. -You don't need it, you don't need anything. -No, I don't need a blender though I'll certainly benefiting from the food that she'll probably make with it but, I'm not gonna-- no. I'm not gonna be using it myself. -So this is sounds like a 90-10 percent sort of thing. -You're saying I need to ask for something in return. -I didn't say that. I'm just saying-- -I like that advice. -I'm just saying, you know, you're being selfless right here so better be-- -I'm gonna come back with a shitload of [unk] jerky. I will say that right now. -Nice. -If they have a Friday sale on that. I saw an ad in the newspaper this morning for a Black Friday sale at Petco. And the doors open at 8:00 on Friday. -Why is it crazy? -I mean, it's just as crazy as going to a Costco to buy a blender. -Equally as crazy. -I totally see that comparison. -Equally. -But it's just really funny to imagine people lining up at Petco early in the morning. -Is it? -Yeah. I mean, I literally see no difference. -And they both have-- -That number one I think is clear. Number two, you know, if you're-- like if that's your thing, if you're like a cat dude or lady-- -Right. -and you got like 17 cats or if you're like 35 dogs, you gonna needed like a lot of cable. -Yeah. -And it's cheap on Black Friday. -Miserable. -That's why I don't even go outside the house on Black Friday. I stay indoors. Let the bombs drop and let the chips fall where they [unk] and then just crawl out of the dirt on Saturday to see if there's still a world to go back to. -I know. I'm gonna be an army crawling through the entire Costco. -Yeah. -You got balls man. -It's gonna be painful, yeah. -You know, you're all like laughing right now. You have no idea what you're in for. -Yeah, I mean-- -You might wind up in jail. You might like, I'm telling you, I can see it right now. It's gonna go-- you're gonna get to the aisle where the Vitamix is at and it's gonna be you and Penny and-- -Like 30 other people. -another couple and you both gonna lock eye contact with the thing, that means one left. -Yeah. -And now it's a race and you're just gonna get jacked like, some guys are gonna toss you. I'm tell you man. -Yeah, I know. -I'm worried about you. -I want that shot of me in the middle of Costco and everyone just start screaming but in the camera pans up from me like-- -Right. -up into the sky and then-- -And then there's just like-- -New York and then like earth. -And then-- -Yeah and-- -a nuclear explosion. -Yeah. -That's how I see it, explaining what I'm seeing. All right, well everyone have a great holidays, is what we're trying to say. -Yeah and have fun. -Oh, that's pretty good. All right, we gotta go. I hope you enjoyed today's show. 866-404-CNET, that's the phone number. We're still trying to figure out a way to get the voicemails in here. -Yeah, you stock piling those things? -I got about 65, 75 ready to go. It's fine. Don't worry about it. Again, don't forget. No show Wednesday but we will be back here on Monday. There is a show tomorrow the 26th so tune in to that. Until then, I'm Jeff Bakalar. -I'm Justin Yu. -I'm Ariel Nuñez. -This has been the 404 Show, high tech, low brow. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, all that junk and we'll see you tomorrow on wrap up the short week of shows. Until then, later.