HORROR STORIES

[huntsman53]

At the end of July in 1977, the American Express in Giessen, Germany (West Germany at the time) was exchanging uncirculated German Olympic Coins for U.S. Dollars at the normal Exchange Rate. We (myself, wife and daughter) were getting ready to leave Germany and would need most of my' paycheck for the transfer to home then to Fort Sheridan but I thought I could make some fast cash, so I cashed in most of my' pay for the Olympic Coins. After shopping them around to many locations in Giessen with no luck, I finally had to exchange the coins back to U.S. Dollars at the Dresdner Bank in Giessen and lost $20 on the exchange. There was somewhere between 30 and 40 pounds of 65% Silver Coins that I cashed back in in early August of 1977. Well as luck has it, Silver went slightly above $50 an ounce in January of 1980 due to the Hunt brothers trying to corner and manipulate the Silver Market. I lost thousands of dollars because I did not and could not afford to hold onto the German Olympic Coins.

 

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[trdking]

Bought 50 shares of Facebook stock at $42.00 a share when they had their IPO in 2012. Scottrade waited 4 days before they placed it in my account. By then it was already down to $35.00 a share. Sold it a few months later for $20 a share, taking a $1,100 loss on it. Those 50 shares are currently worth $8,875.00, by the way...

I tried to buy 5000 share at IPO and kicked myself because the transaction wouldn't go through. Bought it later for 17.50 Still have it!

 

[trdking]

Toss up: 3,500 comic books from the 50's and 60's that Mom took to the thrift store and got $.25/bundle for...or my 1958 Corvette that I bought for $1600 and sold for a whopping $2200? 😭
Nevermind...just kick me. Hard.

I have a 59 fuel and a 60 2x4 They are so much fun to drive!

 

[trdking]

I bought a Patek & Philippe Split second chronograph One button control. Extremely complicated Paid $6800 when I was 17 Emptied my bank account sold my camaro and borrowed 1200 from my sister. Had to HAVE it. 10 months later I needed start up capitol for a construction venture and sold it for 12,500. GREAT RETURN Right? I followed that watch one of 2 made right up to its sale in 2014 for a clean 1,000,000.00 and then straight to antiquorum in switzerland 6 months later for 1.5M drats!

 

[Ogre1190]

That reminded me...the 1870-ish gold Elgin pocket watch that was stolen outta my car the one - ONE - night I forgot to lock the doors! 😖 Grrrr.

 

[huntsman53]

I bought a Patek & Philippe Split second chronograph One button control. Extremely complicated Paid $6800 when I was 17 Emptied my bank account sold my camaro and borrowed 1200 from my sister. Had to HAVE it. 10 months later I needed start up capitol for a construction venture and sold it for 12,500. GREAT RETURN Right? I followed that watch one of 2 made right up to its sale in 2014 for a clean 1,000,000.00 and then straight to antiquorum in switzerland 6 months later for 1.5M drats!

Ouch!!

 

[DeepseekerADS]

I had a Mercury Comet Caliente Coupe that was titled as a 1964 and came from the factory with a 289 Cu. Inch Engine, 4 Speed in the Floor, Carpet, Leather Seats and an Alternator. I found out before entering the U.S. Army that the car had an Aluminum Body but did not find out what that meant until many years later. Shortly after entering the U.S. Army, I gave the car to my Brother-In-Law because I owed him so much money and he sold the car. It was actually an Experimental or Test Car and Lincoln-Mercury was apparently testing the use of Alternators on other Models (Lincoln Continentals were the only Lincoln-Mercury cars that came with an Alternator in 1964 and before) and is worth a mint today.

Same here! Mine was burgundy. I gave it to my Cousin Earl when I went in the army, and never saw it again. That baby was actually very fast, buried the hand in 3rd and wound out from there. I'd have killed myself in it anyway.....

 

[huntsman53]

Around the same time of my German Silver Olympic Coin debacle (late July of 1977), I made more screw ups which I wish I could go back and change at least one. Just before we (myself, wife and daughter) left West Germany, I sold my' 1969 Ford Fairlane 500. The Fairlane 500 which was a Banana Yellow with a Black Vinyl Top, had Black Rolled Interior, a 429 Cu. Inch Engine with a Holley Dual Line 4-Barrel Carburetor, a 4 Speed in the floor with Hurst Shifter, L-60 14 Inch Tires and Deep-well Rims on the Back, regular 14s on the front and had Air Shocks on the Back. I was clocked in the car at well over 200 mph on the Karlsruhe Autobahn by a U.S. Army CW2 Helicopter Pilot who was driving one of the last 15 (either late 1974 or early 1975) Ford De Tomaso Pantera GT or GTS cars ever built for Ford. I could have driven the 1969 Fairlane 500 to Bremerhaven, West Germany and placed it on a ship for transport back to the States but since I drove so much for my Unit, 70th Transportation Company of the 106th Transportation Battalion of the 37th Transportation Group, I saw no way to get the car there. Instead, I ordered a 1977 Ford F-150 Pickup Truck which I was supposed to pick up in Dearborn, Michigan. Well, Ford canceled the order on me, so I had to order a 1978 Ford F-150 and put my' Fairlane 500 up for sale. The Warrant Officer who clocked my' Fairlane 500 at over 200 mph on the Karlsruhe Autobahn just happened to also be stationed in Giessen, heard that I was selling the Fairlane and wanted to do a trade. He would take my' Fairlane 500 in on trade for the Ford De Tomaso Pantera, giving me a really good trade and I would make payments on the $9,000 balance to him. I asked why he would want to trade such a nice Sports Car and he stated that he could not afford the Automobile Insurance on the car since the German Insurance Companies really took Sports Car Owners to the Cleaners while they were really cheap on my' car because they had no idea how to rate it insurance-wise. I told the Warrant Officer that it was a great deal but I had already ordered a 1978 Ford F-150 from Ford. In after thought, I could have canceled the order for the Pickup, taken the deal with the Warrant Officer and ended up with a car that is worth over $100,000 today or could have had my' 1969 Ford Fairlane 500 shipped to the States where my cousin could have helped me beef it up for it to win many Drag Race Heats and Races since Ed builds and has built many winning Drag Strip Cars. As luck has it, Ford never built the 1978 Ford F-150 that I had ordered due to the gear ratio I wanted in the 5 Speed Transmission and gear ratio I wanted in the Rear-end.

 

[trdking]

Ouch!!

Tell me about it. Of all my life time of scores, this is THE ONE that got away. It used to haunt me but now I just tell myself I made my money and let it go. Cant cry over spilt milk. I also owned of of the first corvettes ever made 1953 That I bought as a disassembled basket case out of the mechanics shed of Cormier Chevrolet for 6K No-one really wanted the 6 cylinder C1's Back then. I painted it rebuilt the engine and reassembled the car and sold it for 25,500.00 Wahooooooo!!!! What are they 175,000K now?

 

[Mr. Digger]

I was young kid and still learning about coins and collecting when this happened. My grandfather had given me a number of coins, one of which turned out to be a 1955 double die Lincoln Cent. I don't even think he knew what he had...it was stuck into one of those blue Whitman collection books and I noticed it was a double die. Well some "friend" (who knew better than me) offered me some other random coins for it in trade and I went for it. I can still picture that coin in my mind to this day and I have no doubt that it is currently worth thousands. Ugh.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

I tried to buy 5000 share at IPO and kicked myself because the transaction wouldn't go through.

I was happy mine didn't go through the day of the IPO. But the corrupt bankers (with help from the corrupt stock brokers) dumped the stock on poor saps like me four days later. The banks got their $42 a share and then it tanked. That debacle is the main reason I haven't bought any stocks in six years.

The stock market is corrupt to the core. Insider trading, insider information, short selling and so on makes it tough for the average person to have a chance in the stock market.

 

[DeepseekerADS]

Lost a lot of money in the market in the 80's. Corrupt is my impression = as was my broker (E F Hutton).

When he called I lost money.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

Bought it later for 17.50 Still have it!

You bought 5,000 shares at $17.50? The current value of 5,000 shares of FB is $875,000. You're rich, dude! Sell some of those shares before Zuckerberg kills all the value in it. He's been selling around 200,000 shares every week trying to lock in his profits. He obviously knows something's rotten at Facebook or he wouldn't be dumping millions of shares over the past few months.

 

[Davers]

I started collecting baseball cards in 1987, had alot of complete sets and also some starting lineup figures all in the original packages! Moved out of a duplex in 2001 that my sister and I had been sharing! Accidently left the entire collection that I had stored in a trunk in the bedroom closet of the duplex while moving! By the time I realized it, someone had already got it!

Your loss does hurt , but those mid-late 1980's cards are worth a fraction of what they were in say 1986.

I started collecting about the same time , I would look at the price guides at cards 20 years ago '1965-68' & think in 20 years Ill be Banking . Now some 30+ years later I still have the cards , also got 1993 Basketball cards (For Shaq's Rookie & others ) like the Baseball Cards the printed Millions of them .

In 1984-1987 I should have been buying Basketball Cards. """""Jordan !!!!

 

[trdking]

I was young kid and still learning about coins and collecting when this happened. My grandfather had given me a number of coins, one of which turned out to be a 1955 double die Lincoln Cent. I don't even think he knew what he had...it was stuck into one of those blue Whitman collection books and I noticed it was a double die. Well some "friend" (who knew better than me) offered me some other random coins for it in trade and I went for it. I can still picture that coin in my mind to this day and I have no doubt that it is currently worth thousands. Ugh.

My own grandfather did that to me with a 14D! Old Codger

 

[trdking]

You bought 5,000 shares at $17.50? The current value of 5,000 shares of FB is $875,000. You're rich, dude! Sell some of those shares before Zuckerberg kills all the value in it. He's been selling around 200,000 shares every week trying to lock in his profits. He obviously knows something's rotten at Facebook or he wouldn't be dumping millions of shares over the past few months.

I retired out of the .com era. This put me in a unique position as I got to purchase a lot of FF&E pre IPO or at discounted rates. Apple Google and the like. I bought eBay pre IPO as well. It certainly hasn't hurt me. I will look into Zucks dump age. Thanks for the tip

 

[huntsman53]

Same here! Mine was burgundy. I gave it to my Cousin Earl when I went in the army, and never saw it again. That baby was actually very fast, buried the hand in 3rd and wound out from there. I'd have killed myself in it anyway.....

I sure miss my' 1964 titled Mercury Comet Caliente as she was dark metallic green with chrome half-moon headlight covers. Mine would smoke all of my buddies' cars and I held the local (between friends) record of laying 150 feet of rubber (black marks) in first gear. Had a lot of close calls in her because many of the roads back then in Sevier County Tennessee were gravel or blacktop that saw poor maintenance. I couldn't afford new tires, so we (myself and my friends) ran around in the car with Maypops most of the time. In fact, while heading to Gatlinburg one Sunday, we blew a tire and when I pulled the car off the road into a newly graveled parking lot on the Glades road, the old gal blew two more tires. That was a hoot, LOL!! Called my Brother-In-Law and it took most of the day for us to find a place selling used tires, then we had to find a place that would mount them.

 

[CoinFetcher]

I made the mistake of showing a friend my coin colllection in college.....

When I moved out of that house, my box was there, and the only thing in it was a buffalo nickel!!

I want my grandpas roll of dollars back!

 

[Plumbata]

My father was a hobby-gemcutter and jeweler back in the 80s, and in the 3rd grade (1995) I took in for show-and-tell a box of beautiful raw gems and some faceted stones he had made. I forgot it in my desk and the next day it was gone. I was gutted and shed more than a few tears, but my father is a great man and was very understanding.

Incidentally, the punk kid I believe stole it later in the year stole a book report I turned in, replaced my name with his and put my name on his own far inferior report. When I got "my" report handed back with a big red F I had no idea what had happened, until recess when the punk came up with 2 goons on either side and dangled my passing paper in my face gloating about it. Well in one smooth maneuver I punched him square in the nose with my right fist and snatched my paper back with my left hand, and he ran away crying with a bloody nose and his 2 very surprised goons in tow as I went inside early, performed a handwriting analysis/comparison for my teacher and got the situation corrected, including plenty of detention for that kid and no punishment at all for me punching him in the face (almost always both parties would be punished for fighting). Felt pretty good but it didn't return those stones.

I've sold a few things I would have rather kept in hindsight, the main one being a lovely early Iron-Age Celtic sword (perhaps 500-800BC) in the precise style of Bronze-age swords (still doubled my money on it) but as a rather protective hoarder of good antiques and artifacts I've managed to hold-on to almost all the best stuff, and what was sold I used to start (or help expand) a business so I'm at peace.

My uncle, back in the mid 1960s had a few cents and went to buy a penny gumball. He very clearly recalled that his cent was a very funny looking 1955... Later on he began collecting coins and joked that it was the most expensive piece of candy he ever bought, hah.

 

[FreeBirdTim]

I will look into Zucks dump age. Thanks for the tip

He just sold a whopping 602,000 shares the other day. Nothing worse than a CEO dumping his stock while it's in a downturn. He's probably selling some for tax purposes, but it still looks really bad to me.

https://www.mareainformativa.com/2018/08/31/mark-zuckerberg-sells-602000-shares-of-facebook-inc-common-stock-fb-stock.html