Update: On June 24, 2013, the founder of Your Star Forever commented on this article. His input was important. Click here to scroll directly to comments.
We contend with opportunities for frivolous purchases every day. Unless you live under a rock (which seems unlikely because you’re reading this article), overcoming debt, creating a budget, and starting a savings all require behavioral modifications. But our healthy desires for a frugal life are tested by a society that encourages owning things.
Material possessions and physical land are our two most common examples. Our drive to spend and own leads us to waste money and fall into debt. This malignancy can spread from sea to shining sea, and comically, beyond our humble, earthly world. Sometimes scam artists prey off this susceptibility.
Recently, I was browsing and researching a few science topics when I happened upon a conspicuous ad. It read that for only $29, you could dedicate a star. In this moment, an alarm was blaring in my head: this is fishy. I followed the link to “YourStarForever.com” out of pure frustration that anybody could spend hard-earned money like this.
Lo and behold, it was a “real” site. You can name a star, print a certificate, and it’s yours to keep (sort of). Except there are two major problems. First, nothing exemplifies conspicuous spending better than buying and naming your own star – forever. While $30 may not seem exorbitant, this money could be better spent in any number of ways (think: feeding the homeless, clothing the impoverished, etc.). There’s no tangible asset or production to this consumption. Second, the entire site and naming process is made up – including the “Star Dedication Registry” that it links to.
This is what makes it an ingenious system for the owner, Hart Ventures.
Allow me to explain. Over the years, I’ve become a skeptic to the world around me. Maybe I can blame graduate school and the field of psychology – maybe not. Either way, when I visited the website, something seemed askew. I decided to investigate further.
By clicking on YourStarForever.com’s FAQs, you can find this:
Once a star is dedicated on Your Star Forever the dedication it is filed within StarNamingRegistry.org’s online database. Unfortunately, because of our agreement with the Star Naming Registry, we cannot provide any refunds.
Fair enough, but when you go to “StarNamingRegistry.org,” you are forwarded to the, “StarDedicationRegistry.org.” Already, the agency that keeps track of your star names can’t keep its own name straight.
What about international recognition of your star’s name?
Dedicating a star through Your Star Forever provides unique access to proclaim your love in the sky. However, it is not possible, at this time, to purchase the name of, or rename, any star so that the dedicated name is recognized by any scientific or governmental agency. The International Astronomical Union (IAU) (http://iau.hq.eso.org) is the only body that can officially name a star. And the IAU uses only one internationally recognized system to identify the stars in the sky – either by using preexisting names or by using their precise numerical coordinates. FYI – No one can sell you the rights to officially or exclusively name a star. The IAU does not allow it!
This makes it clear: You cannot actually name a real star by the only internationally-recognized body that oversees this activity. Then, what’s the purpose of this site? Why would anybody pay for something that doesn’t exist by any standards? Great questions.
These ironies grew into wonder about the owner(s) of the website and registry. Who was behind this colossal waste of money? One company: Hart Ventures.
You see, Hart Ventures had a brilliant idea. They decided to create a market for a virtual good that doesn’t exist on any scientific record or tangible level. Then, because people would wonder about the credibility of their named star, they created the registry to catalog them. It’s as if Hart Ventures single-handedly created the New York Stock Exchange and every stock that was available for purchase.
By digging into the public information available on domain owners (WHOIS), I found that Hart Ventures owns both YourStarForever.org and StarDedicationRegistry.org. They’ve created their own monopoly on a market that doesn’t actually exist.
Truth be told, I simply wanted to point out an example of how we sometimes waste money. The reality is that purchasing and naming a star should never be considered worthwhile for anybody at any age. The little investigation and subsequent results were just a puzzling bonus.
This is part of the “Money Mistakes” series, which documents frugal myths and strange purchases.
WHOIS Searches:
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=stardedicationregistry.org
http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=yourstarforever.com
Ha, have to agree with this. Never understood the point. I can name a star in my head for free whenever I want to without the hassle of paperwork.
Haha. Exactly! 🙂 Thanks for reading.
-Sam
But you gotta have the certificate from some third party for validation. 🙂
Too funny. As long as it’s made up, couldn’t you just print your own certificate?
Exactly! Go grab a Microsoft Word template and make yourself a certificate. Then, go point up to a star and the sky and name it. Simple as that!
Lol, that is classic! My younger brother fell for this a number of years ago to name a star for his girlfriend. As any younger brother does…he did not listen. 😉
Bummer we couldn’t save him from making that mistake. Haha. Thanks for reading. 🙂
I have always found this funny. I understand that someone could say it’s romantic to do this for a woman, but its a total waste of money.
Hey Sean, actually 72% of our customers are women. I never would have expected that either.
Hey Sam, this is Ryan Hart of Your Star Forever:) I found your blog post after looking at my Google Analytics and seeing that I had 8 visitors that found my site from your website and 3 dedicated a star to someone.
Thank you for doing your homework and sharing your financial tips with your readers. The world needs more people like you to encourage others to save. I think it was Benjamin Franklin that said a penny saved is a penny earned.
I wanted to take this opportunity to mention since it is not possible to name a star, the text “Name a Star” would be misleading, right? That is why we use the term “Dedicate a Star” on our website. I want to be upfront with people about what they are buying. Yes, we previously used the domain StarNamingRegistry, but I recently transitioned that to StarDedicationRegistry to hold to my conviction to use the word “Dedicate” across the websites.
You asked what the purpose of the site was… “Our mission is to help people meaningly affirm significant relationships by dedicating a star to someone special.” I hope you can appreciate how personal and significant this niche gift product can be to someone, even if it is simply numbers in a database.
Ryan,
Thank you for responding to this story. I’ll be updating the article to reflect your input.
I appreciate your kindness in explaining about Your Star Forever. Note that I do believe this business continues to confuse consumers. And, at the same point, people should be more critical.
All the best,
Sam
Looks like earth is out of the resources , My wife dedicated it to me and I felt it so meaning less , how can some one name some thing which it doesn’t belong to you .
That’s how this country (US, and most) were made in the first place. This is nothing new.
I have also noticed that if you purchased more than one star. you will pay for the same star for both the certificates will be that exact same coordinates. just different names on certificate. i also searched the registry for my purchase and noticed that with others as well.
Job, thank you for your comment. I would like to assure you we are very committed to only dedicating each star once, and as you can see, our database has over 1,000,000 stars available in it and there is no reason for us to be stingy and have different customers share the same star. We used to have issues with people’s browser cache storing cookies and submitting orders with previous data, but we have worked to correct that programming error. If anyone has experienced this we are more than happy to help them correct it by contacting us at Support@YourStarForever.com. Thank you Sam for providing a makeshift forum for these comments to be addressed. Sincerely, Ryan Hart
This ^^^ reply is interesting, considering that there is currently a Groupon titled “NAME stars from Your Star Forever”. Also, the moderator who is responding to customer questions is signing with the name Ryan H and is using the term “name” rather than “dedicate” when replying. I was considering the groupon but hit the google search engine for feedback. The misleading information and lack of integrity is shameful. I’d have no problem buying this novelty item if the owner was honest about the product, but I will not support a person who outright lies about their product.
The phone number to contact people is bogus. It rings and disconnects you. I’ve also messaged the guy that started this last month and never got a response. I did it again today. I purchased two stars for a vday gift. All I want is the app for Android to go out and locate the star like it says you can do!!!!
I think it is a nice idea, like an online greeting card, but with more depth. However, I would never pay $29 for it.
I did it because it is fun – stop being so serious and enjoy the crazy things of life – kick up your heals and have some fun – we are born to have fun on this earth and people are entirely to serious – lighten up
My wife, bless her heart, just bought the Groupon for me. Her intentions were really nice. I have decided to call the star, “Family.” However, I am very, very aware of the silliness of this whole thing. “Naming” as this article points out, isn’t officially accurate, but within the “Your Star Forever” customer base, maybe.
Beyond the specific naming issue, let me point out that the number of visible stars in either northern or southern hemisphere, under ideal conditions is only about 4500. Total visible stars (magnitude 6.5, the naked eye limit for most of humanity) possible is around 9500. So a database of 1,000,000 is also ludicrous. So the max customers who can see a star at any one time, maybe 4500.
No matter, I am taking the groupon and going to pick my star. If nothing else it will be a fun conversation piece and make a statement to my family, that “Family” is our bright star. We will share this together even if it is just in principle.
I understand the unreality of the concept, but I bought 2 groupons, for $7 each, and named the stars after my kids and their dogs. I downloaded the certificates, which have 2 different coordinates, which I chose, (both next to Vega in the constellation Lyra), and then added a pic of each kid with his/her dog using Powerpoint and printed the certificates out. Put them in a frame, along with a pic of the constellation and its neighbors with the location of “their” stars added, and I now have 2 extremely awesome Hanukkah gifts for each of my kids.
I know that there really aren’t stars with these names, but my kids will be stoked. We live in Colorado, with some of the clearest night skies in the US. They will always “own” a star just to the north of big bright Vega. The whole thing cost me $20 and a little time. It’s meaning will be worth so much more than that. A bargain, I reckon!