Two courtside seats for Knicks vs Spurs game 3 on Monday, June 8 just sold for $550,000.
https://preview.redd.it/4bhai0xsdx5h1.png?width=1217&format=png&auto=webp&s=fc361f344ea9248ccb18855b13c2d75aba1c1180
The bidding was only open for 6 hours. 11AM-5PM ET. What a shocking amount in such a short time.
that is a financial decision you can make
Actually for 99.9% of the people, this is a financial decision they cannot make.
Just affirm it
My affirm and klarna are full. Maybe I’ll put this on sezzle.
it’s literally on Fleebo
I appreciate this. Didn’t know about sezzle. A new platform I can add to my already maxed out payment plan platforms.
Gotta catch em all 🤓👍
I mean you could
With what credit card limit?
I’m no math doctor but probably about a $551,000 one?
I shall consult the math doctor council to see if this maths
Nah dude just take his word for it
I’m a physicist… math checks out
charging 550k on a discover card is a choice, I suppose
Amex, no limit*
^(*Not how it works in reality but shhhhhh)
What’s that work out to with Klarna?…. Hmmm… Yeah, still probably can’t cut it.
the people who made this decision most definitely don’t need to worry about their finances
And yet they’re the same people that cry about taxes…
Wealthy people are sometimes some of the most selfish and stingy. Feel like at a certain point hoarding wealth has gotta be like some kind of addiction or something idk
When you’ve achieved every goal in your career and life the goal becomes to get the most money/power possible.
Without goals we dont really have a reason to live, so after everything has been achieved life essentially becomes Runescape where you grind to make the number as big as possible.
rich ppl will ask for a venmo to split an uber. poor people will give you their last dollar
That was me guys. Had to sell my summer cottage for it but I’ll make it back on my bonus at year end.
Percentage wise not a big deal, and the write off will make it worthwhile.
Analytically you’re good bro, that summer cottage was depreciating
I know we’re memeing, but real estate is nutso. I was able to buy a house 3-4 years ago now and apparently it’s worth 45k more than what I bought it for. That’s in St. Louis, and one of the main reasons I went with this house is that it was still on the market after a week
Bro that’s wild. What’s even wilder is that your profit would net you 4 nosebleed seats at MSG tomorrow.
Money really doesn’t even make sense at this point.
What will be the average income of a person in MSG watching this game?
Yes
Dollars to doughnuts these tickets were purchased by a named partner with firm money, then written off as a business expense. It’s about rep even more than landing the client.
Wealthy people don’t have incomes; they have assets. And they use those assets to grow more assets.
That…doesn’t answer the question.
What a waffle answer lol
Pancake answer
How many seasons ticket holders are there? I gotta imagine a lot of these are from them cashing in for game 3 or 4 assuming they can pay for a season lol
But honestly avg is probably 150k, assuming a majority of them didn’t sell and are season tix holders.
The avg of the lower bowl though? Easily north of like $5m. Courtside probably 20+ or invited by Dolan.
If you’re buying tickets resale probably 300k+. There will be twenty something investment banking analysts and law firm associates that will splurge some of their bonus money. There will be law firm partners and banking directors making millions occupying better seats.
A very large segment will be 500k+, doctors, private equity, hedge funds, quant trading, etc.
Apparently all of it is going to the Garden of Dreams Foundation
So basically a rich person to get courtside seats and write it off as a charity donation
Or you could look at it as someone paid more than they had to and made a donation to charity. I don’t get the need to demonise a donation to charity lol
These people are miserable assholes but worse, they’re idiots who think giving away \(100k to save \)10k in taxes is some kind of evil genius rich people financial move. Lmao. Literally Kramer level of idiocy: “they just write it off, Jerry!”
But this is why we need ethical taxation these rich mfs should automatically donate to fund public services and undeserved communities via taxation them donating that is the equivalent of crumpling up a dollar and throwing it at a homeless person
Uh, we do? We have the most progressive tax system in the world. Sure, maybe it should be more progressive, but getting into that in response to someone being charitable is crazy.
The US only has a progressive tax system if you pretend that every fucking tax doesn’t exist except for income tax, like the Cato institute keeps pitching so that you don’t realize the people who pay for that think tank have a lower effective tax rate than a random guy who works at Walmart.
My guy, I’m not gonna get into it with you on something PhD holding economists agree on. You really think your brilliant ass thought of all those other taxes and economists who study this stuff didn’t? Lol.
You have a horrendous understanding of the tax burden on citizens. Sales tax, property taxes, excise taxes, payroll taxes….
Coupled with the fact that most wealthy people actually pay things like capital gains, not income tax. Or they borrow against they own appreciated assets avoiding income taxes entirely.
When you account for all these things, the most rich are paying lower tax rates than the middle class and the tax code is effectively flat or slightly regressive.
That’s only if you’re going by the percentage of taxes that are paid by the top 1%, which is because the US is so much richer than other countries not cos the tax system itself is inherently more progressive. If you go by top tax band rate, it’s around the 10th most progressive in the world. I thought if you factored in that other developed countries spend 25-30% on healthcare, that therefore the effective US tax rate would be higher, but it seems the US gov spends about the same % of tax receipts as other developed countries on healthcare, it just doesnt cover most people.
I’d put a lot of money on the fact that most of these people have some regular donation to charity, even if it’s just for better optics. Who gives a fuck though, they’re donating
JFC man
Great counter point 😂
Better than misrepresenting someone’s point for likes.
Do you even know how tax write offs work? Do you think a rich person can just get back $550k for these tickets from the government like that?
I don’t know how it works. But they do. And they’re the ones writing it off!
Not getting it back but reduces their taxable income. I know how taxes work
Clearly not that well. You canot write off any of this as a donation, you are buying a product for FMV. This was an auction so its clearly the FMV, and not paying face value plus a big donation
The fine print on the auction said the deduction would be final sale price minus \(39kish fair market price. So this person can deduct \)510k ish from their income tax. That doesn’t support the other folks’ point though because tax savings isn’t just free money.
Thanks for pointing this out.
Assuming the 40k is a fair and accurate estimate of the value, then it is exactly what I put in my last sentence - its sold for 40K with a 510k donation. The headline is super misleading.
Absolutely, it’s sad that the accurate headline of “rich person buys two seats for \(20k each and donates \)510k to charity” doesn’t really hit the same rage and click need folks seem to crave
You don’t deduct an expense from your income. It’s literally the opposite of income.
The only deduction here is if someone donated their tickets to the charity which is benefiting. You can’t buy something where proceeds go to charity and write it off.
People have money money everywhere, but wow it’s very easy to get reminded in nyc
I feel like you guys say this all year long like everyone here is rich. We have a socialist mayor who won in a historic fashion because about 60% of people struggle financially in NYC on a monthly basis.
The prices are high for premium events because the smaller percent of very wealthy people can afford anything at any price with the massive wealth gap.
NYC has the most millionaires on the planet. Yes lots of poverty, and not everyone is rich, but my point is people do have a lot of money and it’s very easy to be reminded of it.
Points to a population map*
most “millionaires” are people with 401ks and houses. They do not have the liquid cash to splash on high 8-9 figure Finals tickets.
This is either a corporate purchase or a high 9, near billionaire.
That’s a great point regarding millionaires. It’s actually not so, so much of a stretch these days. If you invest when you’re young, save, and don’t needlessly squander stuff, it’s not hard to let the market bring you over that line by the time you’re middle-aged. It’ll be even easier in the future because of inflation.
Nobody is saying everyone in NYC is rich lmao. Just that there is a lot of rich people in NYC, because of course there is it’s the financial center of the country dude.
“I feel like you guys think [something you didn’t say]. You’re wrong.”
Take that straw man!
Nobody is saying that. Its in your head.
Both can be true.. NYC has a completely warped working economy with some of the highest salaries on the planet. No one is talking about service and utility and lower paid professions when they say that.
If you ever get the chance to see the south of France or those Italian coasts (I stayed in a hostel don’t shoot me) the wealth is ABSURD
There’s more wealth surrounding Central Park than all of those coastal Italian towns combined
As long as you leave Monaco out of the equation, sure.
Mónaco is an independent country, thus, not an Italian coastal town
Bidding against people who don’t care about money. These people will definitely purchase tickets for game 4 too
If they win game 3, the prices for game 4 will sky rocket.
It will hit levels that you thought impossible
Still alot but it was for charity.
Late stage capitalism
Shhh I didn’t want people to know 🤫
Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to call off work for a couple weeks and not have it ruin you financially lol
Almost enough to make me root for the spurs, lol
Honestly would’ve expected it to be higher
Paying house prices for a game just feels immoral
A little less than what I owe on my mortgage!
If Knicks close it out in MSG, this will be the funniest scenario. The rich ass fans inside afraid of entering the riots outside. The fans outside celebrating outside making it impossible to walk out of venue.
Rich people take the subway in NYC.
The real reason why the canceled the watch party outside of MSG.
we need a wealth tax
Pretty sure this is a charity auction
I can assure you, these are corporate or business purchases and they will be tax deductible.
Redditors and claiming anything is tax deductible. A joke that will never die lmao
Business expenses are tax deductible for legit Companies
They just write it off!
https://youtu.be/XEL65gywwHQ
Which makes it even worse…
Gross
Fuck the rich
Were those your tickets that you sold?
People watching from the sidelines are probably more rich than a players anyway.
If the Knicks win Game 3, the ticket prices for Game 4 will be insane.
Serious question. What would your net worth have to be to be able to spend that amount on something like this?
Personally, I feel like it would have to 1%. If you do math, that means your net worth is somewhere above 50 million.
Which one of you bought it?!
I wish I had that kinda money
there’s no way league office, refs and owners will miss this chance to 1) allow the Knicks win it all, 2) extend this series to at least 6 games. but they don’t even need to “intervenes” much. Knicks are too good and Spurs are too raw. perfect storm to make billionaires more rich.
NYC paper is different
That’s life changing money to me but chump change to that fella. Kudos I guess. :( I’ll go back to my 9-5 lol
Taxes need to be so much higher
Analytically speaking how much were they really
I’m sure some of these sales and purchases are just money laundering
Tax the rich
I couldn’t get a loan for that much if my entire families lives depended on it
This is a far more sensible amount than the 108K I was seeing in previous stories.
Fuck you money
There are definitely financial techniques that the ultra wealthy use to profit off charitable donations. There are massive tax deductions that apply which roll over year over year. You then take those year over year tax savings to fund universal life insurance policies the benefits of which are worth more than the charitable donations and passes as a death benefit to your beneficiaries tax free.
Surely some conservative that wanted to in the presence of his greatness the convicted felon
For this reason alone I want to see NY lose.
Isnt it to charity? Probably a writeoff lol
why does no one still know how writeoffs work
they just dont have to pay taxes on it, it still has a functional cost of at least like $300k at the top bracket
yeah it’s not free it’s just like 20% off
It’s not anything off, it still costs you more money than not donating would have.
that’s what “X%” off in the context of buying things means…
Well then why don’t they call it a tax write-off?
It’s 2026, and Reddit still doesn’t know what a write-off is
More info:
Proceeds from this auction will benefit The Garden of Dreams Foundation.
Under federal law, the charitable portion of your payment is limited to the amount that exceeds the fair market value of the goods or services you receive. The total fair market value of the tickets is $39,600. Accordingly, only the amount of your payment that exceeds these values is deductible as a charitable contribution.