In 2013, the cost of a New York City taxi medallion — the necessary registration to operate one of those famous yellow cabs — was more than $1 million; a truly precious commodity in one of the world’s great metropolises.
This summer, though, there were two auctions in New York City — one for 16 medallions, another for 60. Each medallion sold, on average, for roughly $125,000 each.
What happened? Uber and Lyft came around.
In April 2002 you could buy a share of Blockbuster stock for roughly $30. But after Netflix started sending DVDs to people’s homes through the mail, and then began to skip the disc and mail altogether in 2007, that same share of stock was worth less than a dollar at the end of 2008.