Here's a piece from Money that highlights FORTUNE's "Believe It or Not" investment gallery -- some of the most unconventional investments of all time. Here are the details:
They all laughed when Jefferson bought half the continent from France. Alaska was called "Seward's folly." Other "crazy" investments have worked out fine, too. But some oddball bets fell flat.
One of the surprising losers in our gallery is Warren Buffett, and there's a host of other investors profiled, both winners (the entrepreneur who bought the formula for a weird brown health drink called Coca-Cola) and losers (remember Webvan?).
Advertising mogul Charles Saatchi made a good call when he bought Damien Hirst's infamous shark installation (a 14-foot tiger shark suspended in a tank of formaldehyde) in 1991 for under $100,000. Twelve years later, he sold it to hedge fund manager Steve Cohen for between $8 million and $12 million. Rumor has it that the shark may soon take up residence at New York's MoMA.
Kim Basinger didn't make out as well when she helped buy Braselton, Ga., for $20 million in 1989. She hoped it would become a tourist attraction and film festival site, but instead it was sold for $1 million when the actress declared bankruptcy four years later.
We'll be covering these in several parts so we can savor the "unconventionalness" of them all. Stick around -- it will be lots of fun to read about and comment on them!
Click here to read part 2 of this series.
Free Money Finance recommends Emigrant Direct for its 4.0% yield.
Those are great. I can't wait to see more. The shark story sounds interesting, any chance of some deeper analysis of those?
Cheers
Posted by: Free Finance Advice | December 12, 2005 at 05:33 PM
I'll leave that deeper analysis to you. ;-)
Posted by: FMF | December 12, 2005 at 08:24 PM