3 ms·

Well, yes but not really. I could buy a local sweetshop for a 100 billion dollars, just because I might do that, that doesn't mean it's actually worth that.

wrs 2mo ago
On the contrary, you would be demonstrating that, to at least one buyer, it was worth that. By definition. I think the argument you’re really looking to contradict is this: if 1% of a company is worth $1B to somebody, then somebody would pay $100B for the whole company. That does not follow (and indeed the acquisition price of a company is almost never exactly its “market valuation”).
- watutalkinbout 2mo ago
  No. You are assuming that the money that I buy the sweet shop for is what I evaluate the value of the sweet shop to be worth. That's not necessarily true. You're also assuming I'm not insane. If I offer to buy an apple from you for 1 trillion dollars because I believe consuming that specific apple will make me a god, that apple is not actually worth 1 trillion dollars.
  - paxys 2mo ago
    Items don’t have an inherent “worth”. If I have an apple and you agree to buy it for $1T, then the apple is indeed worth $1T at that moment. After the purchase is complete it is worth ~$0, or whatever the next person is willing to pay you for it. Alternatively you can say “it is still worth $1T to me” and that would be true as well. When we are specifically talking about companies, their value is where buyers meet sellers in the order book.
    - watutalkinbout 2mo ago
      What if I say, "it's not worth $1T to me but I'm doing it for the memes" Are you selling me just the apple?
      - hananova 2mo ago
        Doesn't change anything. If you buy something for a certain price, regardless of whatever reasons you have for doing so (including but not limited to, being rich and irresponsible, being insane, or doing it for the memes.) Then that thing has that value to you at that point in time. Whether someone else will share your judgment of its worth is highly unlikely, but it is also entirely irrelevant. Worth has never meant "objective value to literally everyone."
        watutalkinbout 2mo ago
        If I deliberately ridiculously over pay for an item to create publicity then as the buyer it explicitly doesn't have that value to me. The value isn't in the item purchased. I think your definition of value / worth should be based on the seller, not the buyer.
        wrs 2mo ago
        That’s fair, there are cases where the transaction itself has some worth to the buyer for reputational or other reasons, independent of the item being purchased. Those are rather unusual cases, but they happen. There are contracts that involve exchanging $1 to satisfy some legal requirement of consideration, but the relationship created is worth much more than $1. And of course there are barter transactions where items are exchanged directly without any specific valuation in money involved at all.
- paxys 2mo ago
  > and indeed the acquisition price of a company is almost never exactly its “market valuation” The acquisition price is almost always significantly more than its market value. The reason is that if you start buying shares on the open market each transaction of yours will raise the stock price, and eventually you will price yourself out of the purchase. So what buyers do is negotiate directly with the board and propose an inflated price that >50% of shareholders are okay with.
- rightbyte 2mo ago
  In some sense I would argue that it is the next highest bid that determine the worth. I.e. what the buyer could hope to resell for.
Razengan 2mo ago
and just what the fuck is ""worth"" anyway
browningstreet 2mo ago
Real world example: someone just bought the first Ferrari Luce EV for $40M. Obv $600K starting price for that model was low! https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ferraris-bespoke-luce-ev-one-off-fetches-40-million-charity-auction-2026-08-17/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ferrar...
onraglanroad 2mo ago
Yes it's literally what it means. It was worth that to you (even if just to prove a point). What else does worth mean?
- watutalkinbout 2mo ago
  Okay. I buy a sweetshop for 1 billion dollars. Now, immediately after I have bought it, what's it worth?
  - satvikpendem 2mo ago
    What the next person would buy it for. Maybe you buy it for the memes but it doesn't mean another would afterwards.
    - watutalkinbout 2mo ago
      So if I bought it for the memes, the shop itself wasn't worth $1 billion. I could have bought bike shop, or an apple. That value wasn't associated with that specific item. It's an arbitrary choice.
      - satvikpendem 2mo ago
        It was actually, because value is defined as such. Why do you think buying something for the memes is worth less? Like what mechanism exactly makes it worth less? Seems like that's the fundamental misunderstanding you're having in your comments with others in this thread.
        watutalkinbout 2mo ago
        I guess it depends on your definition. The issue is that buying something for the memes isnt worth less, it's 'what you are actually buying'?. If I arbitarily decide to buy an apple for $10 that I could have bought for $1, what did I actually buy with the $9. Publicity? Goodwill? I don't believe I only bought an apple, even from the person I bought it from.

wrs 2mo ago

On the contrary, you would be demonstrating that, to at least one buyer, it was worth that. By definition. I think the argument you’re really looking to contradict is this: if 1% of a company is worth $1B to somebody, then somebody would pay $100B for the whole company. That does not follow (and indeed the acquisition price of a company is almost never exactly its “market valuation”).

watutalkinbout 2mo ago
No. You are assuming that the money that I buy the sweet shop for is what I evaluate the value of the sweet shop to be worth. That's not necessarily true. You're also assuming I'm not insane. If I offer to buy an apple from you for 1 trillion dollars because I believe consuming that specific apple will make me a god, that apple is not actually worth 1 trillion dollars.
- paxys 2mo ago
  Items don’t have an inherent “worth”. If I have an apple and you agree to buy it for $1T, then the apple is indeed worth $1T at that moment. After the purchase is complete it is worth ~$0, or whatever the next person is willing to pay you for it. Alternatively you can say “it is still worth $1T to me” and that would be true as well. When we are specifically talking about companies, their value is where buyers meet sellers in the order book.
  - watutalkinbout 2mo ago
    What if I say, "it's not worth $1T to me but I'm doing it for the memes" Are you selling me just the apple?
    - hananova 2mo ago
      Doesn't change anything. If you buy something for a certain price, regardless of whatever reasons you have for doing so (including but not limited to, being rich and irresponsible, being insane, or doing it for the memes.) Then that thing has that value to you at that point in time. Whether someone else will share your judgment of its worth is highly unlikely, but it is also entirely irrelevant. Worth has never meant "objective value to literally everyone."
      - watutalkinbout 2mo ago
        If I deliberately ridiculously over pay for an item to create publicity then as the buyer it explicitly doesn't have that value to me. The value isn't in the item purchased. I think your definition of value / worth should be based on the seller, not the buyer.
        wrs 2mo ago
        That’s fair, there are cases where the transaction itself has some worth to the buyer for reputational or other reasons, independent of the item being purchased. Those are rather unusual cases, but they happen. There are contracts that involve exchanging $1 to satisfy some legal requirement of consideration, but the relationship created is worth much more than $1. And of course there are barter transactions where items are exchanged directly without any specific valuation in money involved at all.
paxys 2mo ago
> and indeed the acquisition price of a company is almost never exactly its “market valuation” The acquisition price is almost always significantly more than its market value. The reason is that if you start buying shares on the open market each transaction of yours will raise the stock price, and eventually you will price yourself out of the purchase. So what buyers do is negotiate directly with the board and propose an inflated price that >50% of shareholders are okay with.
rightbyte 2mo ago
In some sense I would argue that it is the next highest bid that determine the worth. I.e. what the buyer could hope to resell for.

Razengan 2mo ago

and just what the fuck is ""worth"" anyway

browningstreet 2mo ago

Real world example: someone just bought the first Ferrari Luce EV for $40M. Obv $600K starting price for that model was low! https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ferraris-bespoke-luce-ev-one-off-fetches-40-million-charity-auction-2026-08-17/ https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/ferrar...

onraglanroad 2mo ago

Yes it's literally what it means. It was worth that to you (even if just to prove a point). What else does worth mean?

watutalkinbout 2mo ago
Okay. I buy a sweetshop for 1 billion dollars. Now, immediately after I have bought it, what's it worth?
- satvikpendem 2mo ago
  What the next person would buy it for. Maybe you buy it for the memes but it doesn't mean another would afterwards.
  - watutalkinbout 2mo ago
    So if I bought it for the memes, the shop itself wasn't worth $1 billion. I could have bought bike shop, or an apple. That value wasn't associated with that specific item. It's an arbitrary choice.
    - satvikpendem 2mo ago
      It was actually, because value is defined as such. Why do you think buying something for the memes is worth less? Like what mechanism exactly makes it worth less? Seems like that's the fundamental misunderstanding you're having in your comments with others in this thread.
      - watutalkinbout 2mo ago
        I guess it depends on your definition. The issue is that buying something for the memes isnt worth less, it's 'what you are actually buying'?. If I arbitarily decide to buy an apple for $10 that I could have bought for $1, what did I actually buy with the $9. Publicity? Goodwill? I don't believe I only bought an apple, even from the person I bought it from.