Sam Zell’s Playboy Business

Sam Zell was known for his investment acumen. But Patrick O’Shaugnessy shared this quote on where one of his first business ideas came from:

On one of my walks I discovered a newsstand underneath the “L” tracks. It was 1953, and a provocative new magazine called Playboy had just made its debut featuring Marilyn Monroe on the cover. It sold for 50 cents. I bought a copy and thought it was terrific. So i brought it home ot Highland Park, where it wasn’t for sale, and showed it to my friends. One of them offered to buy it. “Three bucks,” I said. After that, I started a little magazine import business and, in the process, learned a lasting business lesson: Where there is scarcity, price is no object. This basic tenet of supply and demand would later become a governing principle of my investment philosophy. 

Scarcity sells. REALLY well. 

RIP Sam Zell. 

David Senra has a GREAT Zell episode here. This Ted Seides one is awesome too