Missed opportunities your family had of becoming filthy rich

[entertainme]

I always find the stories of separated countries fascinating: Chiang Kai Shek and his men leaving China for Taiwan, drawing a line between North and South Korea. In both cases entire families separated for 40+ years.

I met old men in Taiwan in the late 80's and early 90's who were planning their first trip back to the mainland in 40 years. They took gifts, televisions, etc. Some had first wives and children they'd left behind, with new families in Taiwan.

Apologies for the hijack.

The Poker Mom

[SossMan]

My grandfather got what he thought was a fair offer for his father's company that made a patented hinge called the 'Soss Hinge'. He sold it to a huge company from the midwest for less than $1m in the mid-70s.

Some distant relative of mine repurchased it from the company in 1997 for what was rumored to be in excess of $50m. It's now a $100m company.

www.soss.com

Who knows though...my grandfather might have run it into the ground, so it's a lot of speculation.

[capone0]

My step grandparents had land in Brown City in Michigan. It was farm land, they sold it pretty cheap. Well, they found on 'in there hills' a couple of years later.

[TeenerBall]

Several years ago, Snickers was running the "Shock Zone MVP" promotion. I had saved about 10 of these Snickers wrappers in an envelope and I vividly remember having in my possession the "Jerome Bettis" wrapper. I recall wondering at the time who Bettis was.

Anyhow when the promo ended and the name was announced (during the super bowl, IIRC)I searched frantically for those wrappers yet never found them. When I later moved, I feared finding them because the claim period for prizes had met its deadline long before. But still, they never turned up.

The prize for that single wrapper was $2M. Not enough to be deemed filthy rich, but it would have afforded plenty of hookers and blow.

[JDalla]

My grandfather's dog was cast as the original Lassie, but the day before shooting he was run over by a truck.

My Dad played the lotto back in the day and one time got all the numbers right but my Mom decided the money would tear the family apart so she tore the ticket up.

bad beats

[TxSteve]

these sound more like 'family legends'

your parents lied to you

[GiantWalleye]

I don't have a mega rich story, but a smaller one. Back in 1993 my uncle asked my dad if he wanted to be 1/6 people to put $110,000 into a new apartment complex. My dad decided not to do it at that point in time but my uncle made the investment. It sold in 1999 for $13.4 million [img]/images/graemlins/crazy.gif[/img]

[NajdorfDefense]

Bob Noyce offered my father a job at Intel in the very early 1970s, around 1973 or earlier. My dad, [who has six patents including one that made over a $billion for the firm he worked for, but not him!], decided to meet the Intel crew at a golf tournament they were meeting their clients at.
At the hospitality tent, Noyce sees my dad and says "Welcome aboard, yadda yadda, help me pass out these drinks to these clients..." and my father says 'I can't accept your offer, I'm staying at [insert crappy firm here].'
IIRC, my dad got a $500 bonus for each patent that went to market. Yay!
By contrast, I was making more at 24 than he did his best year, hooray for 'table selection'.

[Patton4]

[ QUOTE ]
What band?

[/ QUOTE ]

Flying Blind... they were pretty big in Northern California, but never really got it going on the national scene. They actually had some pretty catchy radio-friendly songs. They just never dedicated themselves in the way that a band has to in order to make it really big.

The song on the American Pie 2 soundtrack is called Smokescreen (She Only Likes Me When I'm High). It didn't even make the movie because the movie used a bunch of top 40 hits that weren't actually on the soundtrack but were popular right around the time the movie was released.

[NajdorfDefense]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
don't remember actual numbers; but my grandfather (who was a carpenter by trade) had an opportunity to buy an entire city block in Berkely, CA in the 50's.

I don't know what the price was; but he could have afforded it..even on a carpenter's salary.

If he'd bought it...and held onto it...wow

[/ QUOTE ]

Same kinda thing with my grandfather. He had the opportunity to by a few thousand acres just outside of phoenix for .05 cents an acre. He didnt want it cuz it was junk land you couldnt do anything with. Of course the city grew and the land got developed back in the 80s for millions and millions of dollars.

[/ QUOTE ]

You could have bought an entire city block of Hoboken, on the water facing Manhattan, for $400k in 1994. Sadly, I didn't have the money, but the broker was sure right about what a deal that would have been.

My buddy Rob was sharing a large, 3-bdrm condo on CPW in the early 1990s when the RE market crashed in NYC. The owner offered to sell if for $175k, but he couldn't afford it. The owner cut the price to $125k but instead of buying it my friend moved to Russia.

These apts are listed at $4mm and up now. Sick. Like 260% annual return, unlevered. He could have put $25k down and levered it 4-1.