In June, I received an email from the New York Blood Center, alerting me to changes in the Red Cell Advantage Program. Effective June 14, 2010:
1) Points earned for most donation procedures will be reduced.
2) Minimum points required for eligibility to redeem will increase from 400 to 600 points.
3) Points required for redemption to receive gifts or gift cards will increase.
All the penny-pinching, jelly-bean-hungry people exploiting this vein for their own financial gain caused hyperinflation on the blood market or, bloodflation.
Before bloodflation a Barbie in A Mermaid Tale Merliah Doll & Necklace cost me 431 points. On the open market, this doll sells for $14.99. After bloodflation, an equivalent Barbie doll, Barbie Sparkle Lights, also valued at $14.99, costs me 491 points.
So I did a little math to figure out just how much value my blood lost as result of bloodflation.
BEFORE:
| $5.51 | |||||||
| 1 pint |
AFTER :
| $4.84 | |||||||
| 1 pint |
[Ed. note: Some of you may be wondering about the sig figs on these calculations but they're really back of the envelope.]
Before June, my blood was worth roughly $5.51 a pint; after June, $4.84 a pint. The value of a pint of my blood dropped 67 cents, that's a 12.15% loss. And this only accounts for the loss in purchasing power of my earned points. It doesn’t take into account the loss of earning potential resulting from the reduction in points earned per donation.
Needless to say, I wish I had pulled my blood money out of the market sooner. Granted, I fared better than people heavily invested in the stock market, who on average lost 20-30% in their investments. But those people still have real money to show for themselves, even if it’s substantially less than what they started with. I just have hypothetical dollar values that I’ve assigned to my own blood
Sounds like there's a real need for an options exchange here. For a few blood points, you'd probably be willing to buy a contract that allows you to lock in that barbie doll price for 6 months. I'm not talking about a lot of blood here -- maybe the amount you give during the pin prick to test your iron levels. It's a small price to pay for peace of mind.
ReplyDeleteMaybe down the road you decide to leverage yourself 36:1. Worst case scenario, the blood market crashes and somebody bails you out. Everybody wins.