How to really make money in stocks…

March 3, 2009
Posted by Noah

Like so many Americans, I listen to the financial reports on the radio on the way to work every morning and I cringe. I am punch drunk with the relentless stream of mortgage debt swap kidney punches and numb from the unremitting jack-booted kicks of bailouts with 10 zeroes attached. Like so many Americans I put some of what I’ve made over the years into this account or that account and I have watched them dwindle by half in the last two years, through no fault of my own. It’s rough out there, and nowhere is it rougher for the man or woman engaged in the everyday slog than on Wall Street. Perhaps it is just a realm that I – plebe that I am – and those like me, should not have dallied with in the first place.

This morning, though, my gloom and doom are washed away. As I drove to work this morning, the radio blissfully off, I realized that there was indeed a way for someone like me to make a wise investment regarding stocks, and that it happened to be afforded me via the very place that I work, and where you read this, Heritage. I got to my desk this morning, quickly brought up the HA Auction Archives and typed in “stock certificate.”

Lo and behold, it came up with a sizable and impressive list of stocks that our currency department has auctioned off over the years that are indeed still worth quite a bit of money. There’s quite a bit of other stuff there, valuable coins and gold certificates, and some Beach Boys memorabilia as well, so you’ll just have to pick through it for the stocks that most interest you.

Okay, so I know it’s not technically playing the market, but it is playing the market, if you know what I mean. The top stock on the list – a 50 share Disney stock certificate, signed by Walt himself in 1964 – tops out at more than $16,000 and the bottom – a certificate of stock from the Dinwiddie Steel Company – comes in at $3.45, still worth a lot more than some shares of major banks operating on taxpayer money today. A good deal, if you ask me. There are even a couple pieces of stock in some upcoming auctions that I’m weighing carefully placing a bid on. Am I joking? Only half… The truth is, these stocks will hold their value, even if it’s just a few bucks. To me, in this day and age, that’s truly priceless.