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Comment by adamkittelson | Hacker News Reader

I did some quick googling and reservations for a signature 2020 roadster were able to be placed as of November 2017 for $50,000. At that time Tesla's stock price was around $60. (I'm assuming that price is adjusted for the stock split that occurred, correct me if I'm wrong.)

As of right now the stock is about $730. Had one purchased Tesla stock instead of reserving a roadster in 2017 it would now be valued at around $600k which is enough to buy 2 roadsters and change at $250k each. Who knows where it will be in 2023. If I recall correctly reserving a signature Model X was a similarly terrible investment vs buying the stock.

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I've done the same type of math over buying Apple gear and working for income vs buying Apple stock and just hanging out in Thailand or Chile teaching English on the weekends.

Predicting the future is hard. Tesla almost went bankrupt multiple times. It's ok to have a car instead of a retirement.

Every time I buy Apple products I spend the same amount on AAPL. Yes it gets expensive, but so far its been a very good investment - i wouldn't actually call it a strategy - method..

Since its very expensive - I don't buy as much hardware as I otherwise probably would.

If you preordered the Tesla roadster and bought $250,000 of Tesla stock you made millions and got a free car.

I'm not that rich :)

I mean, isn't buying a car a terrible investment in general? Reserving a Mach E is a similarly terrible investment vs buying Ford stock.

A pile of money doesn't get me from point A to point B (well, I guess if you give a small part of the pile to someone selling transport, it might).

Much better investments in terms of transportation are available than flagship electric vehicles, however.

And if you bought a $50,000 reservation and an additional $25,000 worth of Tesla OTM call LEAP options you’d probably have closer to $10,000,000

Who cares about that thought process just focus on making money and never run out

Reservations were novel early on, but now I just don’t think they make any sense.

Reservations and preorders are just interest free loans

And provide a more accurate minimum production estimate since people are actually putting down money to commit.

The "interest" is the value added by being in a queue so that you can get $THING sooner than if you didn't reserve a spot.

Whether the value of the $THING (and having it earlier) actually justifies the opportunity cost of the deposit simply depends on the cost/thing/schedule and the buyer's wishes.

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