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TORONTO — Everyone makes impulse purchases they later regret: the sunglasses that can’t be broken even with a hammer, the dehydrator to make 40 pounds of beef jerky, the set of knives that comes with a side of more knives.

Mine was Toronto Raptors season tickets.

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It was the end of the 2007 regular season, and the Raptors had qualified for the playoffs for the second year in a row, and the team ran a promotion that allowed access to post-season seats with a deposit for the full slate the following year. Also included was an autographed Chris Bosh All-Star jersey.

This was, of course, a ridiculous deal on any level. But I knew people with Maple Leafs tickets who could sell pairs they didn’t want with minimal effort, and so I figured, how different would this be? Look, I was a news editor at the time, not an economist.

The playoff run lasted all of two home games, and I missed the one they won, before Orlando brushed them aside in five games. The following season, coach Sam Mitchell was fired after 17 games and his replacement, Jay Triano, went 25-40. The Raptors finished 33-49 and would not return to the playoffs for six years. The secondary market for tickets was close to non-existent, and my general memory of attending games in my seats up in the 300 level was that the Raptors would play well for half the game before some visiting star — Steve Nash, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard — would stop screwing around and destroy them down the finish.