I haven’t been to a real live carnival in a while but I’ve just been subjected to a carnival-like atmosphere. Last night I attended my first concert in a long time and it wasn’t even a real concert. It was the American Idol Poptarts concert in the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Not that I attend concerts often either, because I don’t. The three concerts I’ve attended in the last 6 years have all been American Idol concerts. Goes to show you how far my obsession with reality shows can run.
We spent exactly $163 on two tickets plus $20 for parking and some extra change for a couple of pretty good turkey sandwiches and drinks on location. My spouse is a trooper since he’s not really into this stuff but he comes along for the ride. And over the last several years, these tickets have gotten more and more inflated with the times. I’ve noticed that these concert tickets and paraphernalia are to soccer moms and their kids, as sports events are to men and their kids. And we all know how much those season tickets can cost.
Anyway, despite the ticket inflation and all that money spent, the experience was definitely worth the price. David Cook as the new American Idol winner made it all worth it. The guy is the most polished Idol performer I’ve seen live and a consummate professional. I predict he’ll sell well and I’ll be out more money when I buy his albums.
Now on to our online financial carnivals! Here’s what we’ve got:
The Carnival of Personal Finance made a visit at Mighty Bargain Hunter. I found the neat and simple layout of this American Flag edition of the carnival quite refreshing. Here’s what I caught over there:
- Credit Card Rewards – Are they really worth it? @ Bible Money Matters
- The Permanent Portfolio (PRPFX): An Interesting Alternative @ Amateur Asset Allocator
- The Other America – Commentary on Food Stamps and the Economy @ Cash Money Life
You can find the Carnival of Money Stories #67 at The Baglady. I was incredibly honored to find my personal story about a friend’s million dollar bad real estate investment highlighted as her Editor’s Pick of the Week. Thank you Bag Lady! So do visit her site to check out many more stories on personal finance like the following:
- A Bad Week (or better; A Bad Month!) @ Dollar Frugal
- Dealing with a Chronic Condition @ Almost Frugal
And if you want a fun and unique carnival, do check out The Carnival of Real Estate at Transparent Real Estate, where Pat Kitano brings us an enjoyable slide show that summarizes all the entries.
A few more lists worthy of your review: a discussion about the several personal finance blog networks in existence and Prosper’s latest roundup.
- Stock trades: Free stock trades from Zecco, Cheap stock trades from TradeKing, Stock news and Investment info at INO TV Free, No cost Trend Analysis for stocks
- Earn top returns: FNBO Direct [1.90%], HSBC Direct [1.65%], WTDirect [1.76%], E*Trade Bank [0.95%], ING Direct [.25% to 1.65%]
- Cash bonus: Discover More [$50], American Express [$25], Lending Club [$25]
If you enjoyed this post, you can get free regular updates through our RSS Feed, or you can have our latest posts delivered to your email inbox by supplying your address here. Your address will only be used for this purpose, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Thanks for the link!
My wife went to american idol live a year or two ago as well – I wouldn’t go if my life depended on it
.
LOL! Lots of women I know have this show as a “sport”. You guys have your Superbowl and other team sports events…
Guess we’re all even! 
Concert tickets have become very expensive, but I still enjoy going out for a night every once and awhile. I prefer going out for experiences more than just buying “stuff.”
Thanks for the mention.
Thanks for the mention- I’m glad you enjoyed the post.
American Idol as a sport? I dunno…
Jim,
Haha! Let’s say it’s taken very seriously, just like any other sport… lol. You don’t want to see what goes on in the heart of fandom.
I won’t even comment about the American Idol thing since my love of SVB knows no bounds…
However, touring and merchandising are the only ways acts make any money today as very few CD are sold and iTunes via a Major label nets the artist about 7cents each. (Although iTunes pays 66 cent…don’t get me started on major labels..)
To have a major tour out there it cost about $1Million per week, about $1.5 million for Stadium size tours. This is just the cost of crew and gear, not to mention talent costs.
This is why tickets are $$$ today
Racer X and everyone,
Oh my! Ah, I hope I haven’t exposed myself too much here… LOL! I’m so cheesy sometimes I’ll admit it. But yeah, good clean fun.
Interesting notes on the expenses behind concerts. I can appreciate all the work everyone involved puts into these shows. I realize that the hike in costs is pricing out a lot of people. Still, the arenas and concert venues for some of this stuff remain pretty packed and sold out. So they can only raise prices more to keep the balance….
I still remember those days fondly in the 1980’s when I watched Depeche Mode concerts and I paid around $20 a ticket (or something like that)….!
Actually ticket prices have actually gone down as online ticket brokers have increased the competition. Only a few years ago you had to go to a local ticket broker if you wanted tickets to a sold out concert. Now there are thousands of brokers who are all competing for you dollar. So although those $80 + tickets to see the Idols live may seem expensive, those might have been $250 each 5 years ago.
Hmmmm… that’s interesting. Well that’s good to know that competition is having a downward pressure on ticket prices. I figured it was like the movies when the prices only go up when it comes to entertainment!
i hate that show American idol. I would never go see it live, even if the tickets were free. I might just to go see Paula, but shes always doped up on some type of drug…geeze