Have you ever wondered whether there’s something very valuable sitting around your house, and you don’t even know it? A woman in England bought what she thought was a costume jewelry ring 30 years ago, and wore it all the time. It turned out to be a 26-carat diamond, which is expected to sell for up to $454,000 at auction this summer. [More]
windfalls
Winner Of The Jet Signup Contest Spent $18K On Ads, Prize Now Worth Millions
By 8.8.16
Back at the beginning of 2015, before it launched to the public, e-commerce site Jet used a contest to encourage people to refer others to the site. The winner was a Pennsylvania man who spent $18,000 on online ads, recruiting new Jet users through sites like Facebook and Swagbucks. He received 100,000 shares in the company, which he couldn’t cash in until the company went public or were sold. Today, the company announced that Walmart acquired it for $3.3 billion. [More]
Vintage Apple Computer Worth $200K Dropped Off For Recycling
By 6.1.15
Back in April, a woman in her sixties dropped off a box of what she said was her late husband’s computer junk at an electronics recycling company in California’s Bay Area. She didn’t want a donation receipt, and just wanted the stuff out of her garage. It was only after she left that anyone looked through the box. They found something astonishing: one of the first few hundred desktop computers that Apple sold in the ’70s. [More]
$40 Desk Bought At Auction Comes With $127K In Matured Bonds
By 12.1.14
Every now and again, we come across those magical stories of hidden treasures popping up in the cheapest, most unexpected places, and it’s enough to send a dreamer running to the nearest garage sale, attic or estate sale. The tale of a $40 desk purchased at an auction that contained a valuable cache of matured bonds is no exception. [More]
Buy Old Records At An Estate Sale For $0.50 Each, Get Marvin Gaye’s Lost Passport For Free
By 2.4.14
Everyone loves an unexpected windfall, and no one more so, perhaps, than a collector of Motown paraphernalia. After buying some records at the estate sale of a musician who’d recently passed away, a Motowon Museum employee found he’d scored a bonus item included inside one of them: Marvin Gaye’s 1964 passport. [More]
Cash-Strapped USPS Gets Lucky With New Amazon Sunday Delivery
By 11.12.13
The United States Postal Service has been struggling to make money for some time now, but ho! What is that yonder, in the distance? Could it be a knight in shining armor, riding in to save this damsel in distress? And what is the male version of a damsel? Anyway, Amazon is rolling out Sunday package delivery and it’s granted USPS the contract to carry it out. [More]
Bank Of America Cuts Me A 1¢ Check I Don’t Want Or Need
By 9.9.13
Bank of America…scrupulously honest? Hmm. Reader Dave closed his money market account that dated back to the Countrywide era, transferring all of the funds to a local bank. (Yay!) Well, he thought he had transferred all of the funds. Did the company zombify his account years later, charging him maintenance fees on a one-cent balance? No. something unexpected happened. [More]
Antique Piggy Bank From eBay Stuffed With $133 In Cash
By 7.7.11
Shawn bought this antique piggy bank on eBay for $13.50. Adorable, isn’t it? What was even more adorable was what he found when he pulled out the original cork: $133 in cash. That’ll do, pig. That’ll do. [More]
12 Descendants Of Lumber Baron Split $100 Million Inheritance 92 Years After His Death
By 5.11.11
You may not be able to take your money with you after you die, but with the right legal obstacles in place you can prevent anyone else from touching it for nearly a century. That was proven by a lumber baron who was so unhappy with his descendants that he stipulated his fortune wouldn’t be dispersed until 21 years after his last living grandchild died. [More]
By 2.25.09
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Want to read more about the banker President Obama mentioned tonight who gave $60 million to his employees past and present? [The Miami Herald]
