Not your average playground
compensatedshill: To those that shed tears for him. That if only he’d kept it he’d be rich.
No. Because if he kept it, it wouldn’t have been huge because no one would have ever known about it because he didn’t have a giant marketing arm.
The real lesson here is to ALWAYS negotiate perpetual royalties, even if it’s very small, just in case
sporks5000: The moral of the story: Being able to invent something is not nearly as lucrative as being able to market something.
Agnos: It reminded me of the story of [Robert Kearns](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Kearns), but in that case Ford and Chrysler had stolen his invention (intermittent windshield wiper).
sterlingphoenix: I, too, watch *QI*.
Cyber_Connor: “I want to play the naked man game”
*terrified silence
TheMastodan: https://youtu.be/1e10ZPVafUA
This scene from *The Wire* is really relevant.
Plus it’s an incredible show
madeamashup: I guess he really needed that *operation*
UncleGeorge: Am I the only one who thinks 40m seems like an awfully low amount of money for something on the market for 50 years?
rightwaydown: He should invent another version called “extraction” where you pull teeth out of a head and if you touch the sides it bites you.
Then sell it for $500.
It’s a start at least.
loscorpio87: Wtf was he getting done to his teeth that cost $25,000?
Mequittingthenet: the real story here is any dental procedure costing 25k
Techwood111: Hell, I’d have taken out his molars for $100.
AnusStapler: And that’s why when selling an idea or concept you have to have a price and a percentage of the future sales.
jalford312: Never go for the lump sum, a percentage is almost always better. It’s the difference between getting chump change and making a fucking mint.
expletive-expletive: The inventor of Tetris didn’t see a dime.
barneyjosh: [Ironic. He could save others from death, but not himself.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05dT34hGRdg&t=1m30s)
mattroch: Hopefully during the tooth extraction they didn’t hit the sides.
slopyjopker: Hopefully during the tooth extraction they didn’t get screwed over all the time unfortunately.
idealatry: If only he had invested that $500 in bitcoin.
glowtape: Only 40 million USD? That seems low, considering like more than two decades ago, you could find it fucking everywhere in the first world.
Smeagol3000: Damn, you’d have thought Milton Bradley would have paid for hat shit just out of gratitude.
knockdownbarns: Super cool guy, met him and played his original prototype. Had I known about the teeth I woulda chipped in.
Cascadian-mann: One of my design teachers in college designed the iconic medicine cabinet that EVERY house and apartment used from the 80s to 2000. He sold the patent for like 15k to some develper (construction develper). It’s kinda sad because it’s such a perfect design and he only got 15k while the developer made millions and millions. I guess it takes money to make money.
jrm2007: I have heard so many stories like this. 500 bucks in 1964 was maybe the equivalent of a few thousand. Having said this, he had no way of promoting/distributing/manufacturing and no one could have guessed the success of it. I mean, it is kind of silly, really doesn’t teach kids about surgery or anatomy. I guess it teaches something about electricity.
MissGracie89: I know that Milton Bradley has no obligation to do so, but it would have been good PR to give him the $25K for his procedure.
Redzombie6: 25 grand, what did he try to get, a Lil Wayne grill?
RedHermit1982: Another example of how capitalism rewards innovation.
CaptainBayouBilly: If we had national healthcare, this wouldn’t have been necessary. The richest, most prosperous nation ever to exist cannot afford to take care of its citizens, but can afford to drop million dollar bombs on people in third world nations.
Handibot067-2: Today you learned that capitalism is the system that separates the smart from the dumb.
1percentof1: Is it water on the knee?
jaxnmarko: Always retain a piece of the gross sales!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
NowFreeToMaim: There should be a law. That after so long the inventor will get a chance to renegotiate profits or royalties.
Downvote_MeToHell: f— that game. scared the absolute shit out of me as a kid.