The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Ask a Mustachian => Topic started by: COlady on January 19, 2017, 06:20:29 PM
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Im a CPA. I referred a client to my friend that's a financial advisor. As far as advisors go he's a trustworthy one. To tell me thank you he gave me excellent tickets to a basketball game worth $400. The game is tomorrow and my kids are sick so my husband and I may not be able to go. One of my very good friends absolutely loved this team and would freak out if I gave him the tickets. Is it wrong to give my friend the tickets? My husband says I should let my friend whose a FA know that we probably can't make it.
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Edit: who is a FA
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I would tell the FA. He may have tickets right next to the ones he gave you, and seeing someone else sitting in "your" seats might turn him off.
That said, the tickets were a gift and are technically yours to do what you want with.
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Can you attend with your friend?
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I guess I could but Im really not a fan of basketball. I don't think he would have fun with me.
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I'll bet the kids will stop being sick pretty quickly if they found out they could go to an NBA game :)
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If they were a true gift (as opposed to a favor or a kindness), then you should feel free to do whatever you want with your tickets. A friend would also understand about taking care of a sick relative. Personally though I think you should seize the chance to go with your fan friend.
True story:
If it's been a good year, my employer will raffle off several thousand dollars in prizes to the employees just before Christmas. They're a very generous business. It was a long shot but I was definitely fantasizing about winning one of the iPads or gaming consoles.
One of the prizes was tickets and parking to an NBA game in the New Year. I am not a sport person. I remember literally having the thought "Oh man, that's probably the last prize I would want in this group" when my name was called. I took it as a sign about being grateful and decided to go.
Over Christmas however, I caught a cold from my toddler niece and was sick as a dog for days. I arranged for DH to drop off the tickets at my workplace so a coworker could use the tickets.
A week or two later my boss (the Principal who donated the tickets) stops by my desk. He had heard I had been sick and couldn't go to the game. I tried to assure him that these things happen and I didn't mind, but he insisted on giving me a new set of tickets for later that month. We went and cheered our home team to victory. It wound up being a lot of fun and I'm glad we went.
In retrospect, I think I got the best prize in the lot. I could easily purchase any of the prizes in the lot if I really wanted to, but buying lower-level, mid-court seats at a well matched game would've been a lot harder. What I really got was an experience instead of a thing and I'm grateful for that.
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Years and years ago I worked at a bank with someone who was the fiance of a guy who had been Paul Allen's room mate in college (he now works for him). Paul Allen had given them his court side, mid-court tickets to the Seattle Supersonics and the visiting Lakers. They couldn't go so they gave them to me. The best part of the game was looking across the aisle at Bill Gates' face as he was wondering "who the fuck is that in Paul's seats?".