Non-stock investments

[DTEJD1997]

I know people used to search half dollars for 40% and 90% silver halfs, wonder if thats still profitable. Perhaps if a sorting machine is used, but then again i doubt it makes sense cost wise.

 

I used to dabble in that too!

 

I've found many 40% Kennedy halves but NEVER a 90% silver.  98/100 of the general public have no idea about 40% silver halves and dollars.

 

There are reports of casinos that have slot machines that pay out in half dollars, and those are fertile hunting grounds.

 

I think 90% is just too scarce.  I have heard stories of people finding them, but I've never found one.

 

The other great way to get the silver is to buy big bags of it from your local bank that has a change counting/sorting machine in the lobby for the customers.  People will dump in their coins and not know.

 

I think this way of finding silver is just about played out.  There are radio ads in my market saying "Just say these 3 words and get silver from your bank!", it is an ad for some scammy newsletter, but they clue people in on the 40% halves.

 

You also don't need a machine to sort halves.  You can easily look through a couple thousand dollars worth in a hour...not like with pennies.  You also can tell 90% silver halves a mile away (that are not 1964 Kennedy).

 

Another area to possibly invest in is GOLD coins....but that is a story for a different post...

[CorpRaider]

Timber and New Zealand farmland, no?

[oddballstocks]

I know people used to search half dollars for 40% and 90% silver halfs, wonder if thats still profitable. Perhaps if a sorting machine is used, but then again i doubt it makes sense cost wise.

 

I used to dabble in that too!

 

I've found many 40% Kennedy halves but NEVER a 90% silver.  98/100 of the general public have no idea about 40% silver halves and dollars.

 

There are reports of casinos that have slot machines that pay out in half dollars, and those are fertile hunting grounds.

 

I think 90% is just too scarce.  I have heard stories of people finding them, but I've never found one.

 

The other great way to get the silver is to buy big bags of it from your local bank that has a change counting/sorting machine in the lobby for the customers.  People will dump in their coins and not know.

 

I think this way of finding silver is just about played out.  There are radio ads in my market saying "Just say these 3 words and get silver from your bank!", it is an ad for some scammy newsletter, but they clue people in on the 40% halves.

 

You also don't need a machine to sort halves.  You can easily look through a couple thousand dollars worth in a hour...not like with pennies.  You also can tell 90% silver halves a mile away (that are not 1964 Kennedy).

 

Another area to possibly invest in is GOLD coins....but that is a story for a different post...

 

Coins are funny, most have no idea what they're worth.  My dad made a comment at one point about having some coins handed down to him from his father, they were in a shoe box.  I purchased a book off of Amazon and started to take a look.  Apparently my grandfather had an eye for these things, he had a set of coins from the 1870s that were very rare, they came from a rare mint as well, I want to say somewhere in Nevada.  Anyways the coins were worth a few grand apiece.  He then had loads of coins from the early 1900s worth $10-50 apiece and an assortment of other random items.  I remember the shoebox was worth close to $15k, I encouraged him to put it in a safe deposit box.  He literally had no idea.

 

Here's the twist in this, my grandfather gave some coins to my brother, these were from the collection.  My brother let them sit in his room for a while, then just spent them for face value.  Given what the other coins are worth he made a very stupid mistake. 

 

My grandfather collected stamps as well.  There's an even larger shoebox with the stamps, we have looked at it and become overwhelmed each time.  He had some connection with the post office where he got proof sets or something.  There are years worth of those, no one in my family has the patience to go through it, so they're still in a box in the closet.  Maybe one of my kids will, by then they'll have another 20-30 years of value accruing to them.

[bookie71]

Are we the only ones who have bought discounted deeds of trust?  These are from seller financed real estate and over the last 30 years we have averaged about 12-15 % annual return.  These are in our company profit sharing and thus tax free.

[JBird]

Helium: T-bone1, any specific reasons why helium might fit the profile they are looking for?

 

I don't want to speak for T-bone, but I'll add a note. Helium is an extremely important resource; it's used in things like MRI machines to achieve super-conductivity. Unfortunately it's being depleted far too quickly. It's effectively a non-renewable resource and it grows more scarce by the day. I can't predict the future price, but if we have any sense whatsoever the price of helium needs to rise.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9732883/Ban-helium-balloons-this-Christmas-academic-warns.html

 

[Aberhound]

The coins story reminds me of a guy who inherited Tsar Russia gold bonds issued in 1905. Only a two of the 8 or so adult children wanted any when the estate was divided. Within 20 years the bonds paid out in full when the Soviets wanted to borrow. Not many investments made in 1905 paid out so well 80 or so years later.

 

Other investments can be found which are low in price but eventually return to full value. Shut-in gas fields in NE BC are cheap now but will eventually return to full value. The downside is that you have to pay the lowish annual lease payments to the BC government in the interim which probably has made them so cheap.

[beerbaron]

Helium: T-bone1, any specific reasons why helium might fit the profile they are looking for?

 

I don't want to speak for T-bone, but I'll add a note. Helium is an extremely important resource; it's used in things like MRI machines to achieve super-conductivity. Unfortunately it's being depleted far too quickly. It's effectively a non-renewable resource and it grows more scarce by the day. I can't predict the future price, but if we have any sense whatsoever the price of helium needs to rise.

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/9732883/Ban-helium-balloons-this-Christmas-academic-warns.html

 

I tough only hydrogen got out of the earth's atmosphere...

 

BeerBaron

[gg]

Just saw this article of Yahoo's homepage about the most expensive Lego sets. Hope this doesn't kill the margins for the Lego investors on this board!

 

http://games.yahoo.com/photos/the-10-most-expensive-lego-sets-slideshow/

[CorpRaider]

Mobile Home Parks and RV Pads?  SUI.