Reply #55: Even certain US coins have gone up by leaps and bounds [View All]

[DFW]

Like any nitch area, you just gotta know wtf you're doing.

I once emptied the piggy bank in 1973 while I was in college
to buy a rare date silver dollar I was sure would increase in
value. It cost me $1600, all I had at the time. I kept it until
2004 when some rich collector bought it off me for $150,000.
Suspecting what would happen if Bush got back in (and I won my
bet: that Kerry would win the election, but Bush would remain in
office), I did a like-kind trade for old (pre-1907) US gold coins
with gold at about $450 an ounce. I'm still liable, when I sell,
for 28% tax on the gain (which is, at this point, just about all
of it), but it still leaves me with a nice little cushion to fall
back on if I need it. Needless to say, the Worldcom stock that Bush
backers Solomon Smith Barney bought for me didn't fare quite as well
(they bought me, in their infinite wisdom, 1000 shares of Worldcom
stock at $71--that $71000 is now worth zero).

Certain old US gold coins have gone up more than the price of gold, too.
But is something that you have to monitor and have some knowledge about.
Otherwise, it's about as good as tossing your money at a roulette wheel.