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Chain Cent vs AMZN stock

Dave99BDave99B Posts: 8,708 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited July 12, 2019 7:01PM in U.S. Coin Forum

I bought my lowly G4 Chain Cent in 1997. Paid $2,200. Love the coin, but I doubt it's worth much more than $4,000 today.

Now, had I put that $2,200 in Amazon stock instead (traded for $2.39 in 1997), I'd now have $1,851,129.00, and I could buy a beautiful PCGS MS65 Chain Cent, and still have $800,000 left over for taxes, beer, vacations, etc. Darn it.

Dave

Always looking for original, better date VF20-VF35 Barber quarters and halves, and a quality beer.

Comments

  • FredWeinbergFredWeinberg Posts: 5,930 ✭✭✭✭✭

    "If it's and but's were candy and nuts,
    what a wonderful world it would be"

    If we only had a numismatic time machine !

    Retired Collector & Dealer in Major Mint Error Coins & Currency since the 1960's.Co-Author of Whitman's "100 Greatest U.S. Mint Error Coins", and the Error Coin Encyclopedia, Vols., III & IV. Retired Authenticator for Major Mint Errors for PCGS. A 50+ Year PNG Member.A full-time numismatist since 1972, retired in 2022.
  • AngryTurtleAngryTurtle Posts: 1,589 ✭✭✭

    Or, you could have invested in Pets.com.

  • 291fifth291fifth Posts: 24,710 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Are there really any "investments" anymore? All I seem to see is wild speculation in an attempt to find the next big thing. The fundamentals, as usual, are out the window.

    All glory is fleeting.
  • ctf_error_coinsctf_error_coins Posts: 15,433 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Or you could have invested in the stock ATHM (AtHome Corp) which was one of the first cable internet companies.

    Thing is, my stock in ATHM went bankrupt at the same time AT&T "stole" all the assets of that company. BS.

  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 46,907 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Hind sight is always 20-20. Had you bought Enron stock it would now be worth less that the face value of your chain cent.

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.
    "Paper money eventually returns to its intrinsic value---zero."----Voltaire
    "Everything you say should be true, but not everything true should be said."----Voltaire

  • ctf_error_coinsctf_error_coins Posts: 15,433 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @PerryHall said:
    Hind sight is always 20-20. Had you bought Enron stock it would now be worth less that the face value of your chain cent.

  • tommy44tommy44 Posts: 2,320 ✭✭✭✭✭

    When ever my wife says "we should have bought......." I always answer her with "but would we be happy".

    it's crackers to slip a rozzer the dropsy in snide

  • keetskeets Posts: 25,351 ✭✭✭✭✭

    isn't it accurate to say that if everyone would have kept their heads and their stocks back during the crash that they have done OK?? speculation is hindsight in reverse.

  • ElmhurstElmhurst Posts: 795 ✭✭✭

    In 1997 I thought the economy would collapse within about 10 years, so bought lots of PM stocks, instead of the mainline stock market...guess who the joke is on...

  • jmski52jmski52 Posts: 23,287 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I always wanted to buy a brand new roll of 1909-s vdb's back in 1909, but darnit - I wasn't around then!

    Q: Are You Printing Money? Bernanke: Not Literally

    I knew it would happen.
  • gripgrip Posts: 9,962 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 12, 2019 3:06PM

    Rabbit and the hair. If he didn't stop to whiz he would still be here.

  • Dave99BDave99B Posts: 8,708 ✭✭✭✭✭

    If 'ifs' were 'ships' we'd all be sailing.

    Always looking for original, better date VF20-VF35 Barber quarters and halves, and a quality beer.
  • NysotoNysoto Posts: 3,824 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I have been to several Amazon shareholder meetings (I did NOT buy at $2.39). Bezos usually mentions that he sees some familiar faces in the audience, of the lucky shareholders who bought in early and stuck through the dot-com crash. When AMZN went public, I thought on-line book sales would be low-margin - did not know he was the man who would sell the world :s oh well, bust coins have done OK since then.

    Robert Scot: Engraving Liberty - biography of US Mint's first chief engraver
  • ctf_error_coinsctf_error_coins Posts: 15,433 ✭✭✭✭✭

    How about a thread on what you did Right?

  • SmudgeSmudge Posts: 9,832 ✭✭✭✭✭

    From the coin's time, if wishes were horses, begers would ride.

  • CommemDudeCommemDude Posts: 2,350 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited July 13, 2019 4:43AM

    Like most of us, you would have sold the stock at $5 once you doubled your money.

    It's all about where you get on the train and where you get off.....there have been plenty of chances to get in and make money on that stock ....it has gained 25% in the past six weeks. A thousand shares would put you ahead by 325K and you could still get a decent chain cent.

    Dr Mikey
    Commems and Early Type
  • MaineJimMaineJim Posts: 764 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I was in an investment class back in the 1980's and my portfolio project included taking my student loan and putting it all in Apple stock instead of using it to pay for the college class...wish I had taken my own advise...

    Jim

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I could have bought in on the Canadian diamond stocks when they were on the penny market... :D But did I?? NOOOOOOOO...... :D There are lots of these stories... Could have, would have, should have....but didn't...Oh well... Time rolls on.. the only non-renewable resource....Cheers, RickO

  • GazesGazes Posts: 2,315 ✭✭✭✭✭

    The reason I don't like threads like the OP is that the is a coin forum. Almost everyone on here enjoys buying coins. A thread like this uses hindsight to pick one of the most wildly successful investments of our time and compare it to the purchase of a coin. Whether it is intended to or not, it has a chilling effect of making you second guess purchase of any coin! However, one can not live life like that. What if 20 years ago I didn't take that vacation? Or if I never at dinner out and took all that money and invested in AMZN? I never gave to charity but invested it all in AMZN? It really has nothing to with buying the coin but a mindset of not spending money on anything that is not a necessity because maybe it would do better in AMZN or some other stock. If someone wants to think like that, fine with me but you really should not have a hobby and instead try to pick the next AMZN and hope its not the next ATHM or ENRON etc.

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