Blake’s Choice

It has been an interesting November for Blake Martinez.

On Nov 1, Blake was a starting linebacker for the Las Vegas Raiders earning $10 million per year. You can’t begrudge Blake that handsome compensation. Not everyone is 6’-2”, 240 lbs and can run like the wind. Not everyone once compiled 144 tackles in a season. Not everyone dares to risk having their brain turned to Jell-O with every collision during a 17 week regular season.

In his spare time, Blake built a business specializing in, of all things, Pokemon cards. He owns 40,000 (!) of them and sells them off periodically. He has a discerning eye for rare and valuable cards. Blake espied a 1998 Pokemon Illustrator Pikachu card in his collection that is one of the rarest Pokemon cards known. The card may be worth as much as $1.2 million. On Nov 3, Blake put it up for auction and sold it for $672 K.

Blake (in the middle of the football season, no less) then retired despite being totally healthy. He now has plenty of time to really look over his 40,000 Pokemon cards to see if there might be another $700 K gem among them. Also, very few Pokemon card collectors risk brain injuries due to collisions with angry 300 pound linemen.

Did I mention that Blake is a graduate of Stanford University? It is unlikely that Pokemon Valuation 101 is offered at that fine institution. Still, Stanford’s Economics classes teach its students to balance “risk” and “reward”. Is the $5 million that Blake forfeited worth the risk of (possibly permanent) injury when he can earn $700 K with the risk of only a “cardboard cut” from a Pokemon card?

Good for you, Blake.

By Ed Dufton