A $1.5m “dream team” will scour the Pacific Ocean this summer, seeking meteor fragments from a 2014 splashdown. The interstellar object has a Harvard physicist questioning whether it’s natural or artificial in origin… which is the precise moment we pause the movie. Nah.
In today’s email:
Resale is fun: Except when it’s not.
Yacht shopping: All fun and (really, really pricey) games.
Digits: Apple’s “Top 100,” and more new numbers.
Around the Web: Underwater photo winners, an ancient puzzle, moms’ $2.4T buying power, and more cool internet finds.
🎧 On the go? Listen to today’s podcast to hear about John Wick body-slamming the box office, a cool new basketball startup, Apple’s headset inching closer to reality, and more.
The big idea
Resale’s popping off — for good and bad
Reselling platforms are booming. So is bad behavior. Welcome to the internet.
2023-03-28T00:00:00Z
Juliet Bennett Ryla
Some people “just really want their items,” Blake Robertson, a teenage Depop seller who received a death threat from a customer, toldCNBC.
Threats are rare, but long negotiations with bargain hunters and bidding wars have become common on reselling platforms in a way they haven’t in traditional stores.
Thrifting has always been a popular hobby…
… but it’s boomed online in the last few years, with people turning to platforms like ThredUp, Depop, and Poshmark to browse beyond their neighborhoods. Other contributing factors:
The pandemic: Bored at home, people shopped online (and for fashionable Zoom outfits).
Inflation: They want the deals!
The environment: Gen Z and millennial shoppers, in particular, are seeking more sustainable options.
Brands — from fast-fashion giants like H&M to higher-end retailers like Reformation — are partnering with resale platforms to offload extra merchandise.
Forget it, Jake, it’s the internet
Depop — purchased by Etsy for $1.6B in 2021 — recently deleted its comment section, telling CNBC comments didn’t help buyers decide on items.
On Reddit, some sellers discussed the rude comments they’d received from buyers wanting cheaper prices.
A 2019 Business of Fashioninvestigation revealed sellers — many of them teens — received inappropriate messages from creeps
Long-time resale champ eBay has similar issues; heck, people even send spicy messages on LinkedIn.
In many ways, the rise of harassment and bad behavior is simply an unfortunate testament to a platform’s popularity and we wouldn’t be surprised to see more guardrails in the future.
Payback. Police fruitlessly searched rapper Afroman’s Ohio home last year. He used security cam footage of the failed raid in his music videos. Now the officers are suing, seeking $25k each for emotional distress.
SNIPPETS
Jolting: One day after projecting a $3B loss on EVs this year, Ford announced its under-construction $5.6B plant in Tennessee will produce 500k EVs a year, starting with a next-gen truck.
… It’s a battery bonanza: LG announced a planned $5.5B facility in Arizona. Estimates show North American battery manufacturing capacity growing 10x between 2021 and 2030.
Last chance to learn how to be happy: OK, a little extreme, but April 2 is the deadline to apply for Finnish authorities’ happiness masterclass. The famously happy country will offer a free trip to 10 applicants.
Tobacco’s back… says Marlboro maker Altria, which promised investors it would lean on products like vapes and nicotine pouches to double US smoke-free revenue to $5B by 2028.
Twitter users who received blue checks prior to Musk’s takeover will lose them on April 1, unless they pay up.
Yikes: Hyundai and Kia recalled 571k+ SUVs and minivans because their tow hitch harnesses could catch fire, even when parked.
Meanwhile, GM will no longer make its iconic Chevy Camaro, but hinted that a new version may be in store. GM intends to make only EVs by 2035.
Alley Huupe: Huupe raised $11m for a smart basketball hoop that plays training videos, records data about baskets made (or not), and offers tips. Prices start at $5k, plus a $30/mo. subscription.
Bedtime: A new Utah law will require social media platforms to get parental consent before minors can create accounts and implement a curfew for users under 18.
Words of wisdom: We sat down with nine successful founders and collected their best advice on entrepreneurship, work, and life. Here’s what they’ve learned.
Chart
Olivia Heller
Yacht shopping is a good time — but just the start of the expense
Want an on-water Hyatt Regency? Great. Don’t forget about the operating costs.
2023-03-28T00:00:00Z
Brad Wolverton
Forgive us if we’re a little sour today — it’s just that we have to wait a whole ‘nother year for the next Palm Beach International Boat Show.
What a treat to (virtually) gallivant across a Florida marina, brandish gobs of (make-believe) money, and (mentally) shop for freshly debuted luxury vessels.
PerSouth Florida Business Journal, the just-wrapped festival o’ ferries assembled watercraft worth $1.2B.
Fortunately, we’ve got a weekend full of memories for the scrapbook…
FeadshipArrow is the kind of Cinderella story one can’t help but root for. The floor plan includes a gym, bar, and massage room. The trade-in still carried a confident, like-new asking price of ~$150m.
BenettiAlfa brought 229 feet of life-of-the-party energy — the hydropalace has an infinity pool that converts into a dance floor.
That’s fitting: Anyone who drops a mere $70.5m to land the 2021 winner of the “World Superyacht Award for Displacement Motor Yachts Between 1,000 and 1,599GT” will be quick to cut a rug.
Piercing the fantasy…
…is the exorbitant price that must be paid after the mega-sum purchase. (There’s also the whole “superyachts produce 1.5k times more carbon than the average car” thing to consider.)
A rule of thumb, perCNN, is that 10%+ of a superyacht’s purchase price will be spent yearly to keep it afloat.
Running 10 weeks on a boat Alfa’s size through a cost calculator spits out a ~$4m estimate.
It’s not all sunk costs, though: Some owners try to recoup losses via chartering.
Free Resource
Top 10 social media trends of 2023
We prefer inboxes, obviously.
But we don’t overlook the potency of social media. And these days, neither should you.
Stay on top of what’s making waves in marketing. Read the 2023 Global Social Media Trends Report we created with the bright folks at Brandwatch.
Five fast takeaways:
The mood is funny, trendy, and relatable.
Short-form video will continue to dominate ROI.
Marketers are ditching big names for micro influencers.
Social media is the future of ecommerce.
SMMs should tweak content when reposting across platforms.
Plus: Apple’s “Top 100”, romance scams, and lots of Oreos.
2023-03-28T00:00:00Z
Jacob Cohen
1) The “Top 100” — not the Morgan Wallen-dominated list, but the internal moniker for Apple’s 100 highest-ranking leaders — reportedly gathered last week for a demonstration of the company’s upcoming mixed-reality headset debuting in June.
2) Remote work is an increasingly remote possibility for American workers. According to new Labor Department data, 72.5% of businesses had little to no remote work in 2022, up from 60.1% in 2021, and close to the 76.7% pre-pandemic figure.
3) Here’s some star bucks for ya: When the $150B International Space Station has to dodge space junk, the cost of an emergency maneuver averages $1m per incident. As for the commercial satellite industry, evading space junk is considerably cheaper — in some cases just $699 a pop — thanks to satellites’ relatively small size. (Still, satellite operators are on the hook for ~$58m in annual junk-ducking costs.)
4) A Massachusetts man was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison for stealing $8m+ through online romance scams. One case involved a Florida woman who he had send over $200k+ to help release him from custody… after an “explosion on his oil rig.”
5) A group of MIT researchers doing God’s work — testing 1k+ Oreos to understand the best way to separate the cookies such that the creme sticks to both sides — found that, no matter if they’re slowly twisted apart over five minutes or 100x faster than a human, the creme will stick to one wafer ~80% of the time.
AROUND THE WEB
🏀 On this day: In 1939, the University of Oregon became the first NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament champion. The term “March Madness” became associated with the event in 1982.
🐠 Wow: Check out the 2023 Underwater Photographer of the Year winners’ gallery for some incredible pics.
🕵️ That’s cool: Want to win $700k? Great, all you have to do is figure out what some ancient scrolls buried by a volcano 2k+ years ago say.
🎧 Tune in: The “Shark Tank” experts from the Another Bite podcast are back and breaking down the $2.4T buying power of moms.
Today’s email was brought to you by Jacob Cohen and Juliet Bennett Rylah. Editing by: Ben “Future ‘World Superyacht Award for Displacement Motor Yachts Between 1,000 and 1,599GT’ judge” Berkley.