I bought a couple of bottles of Penfolds Grange, Vintage 1992, about 7 or 8 years ago. I believed I paid a good price for them - about $500 for both bottles. The idea was that when our daughter turned 21 we would either drink it or sell it. She turned 21 earlier this month and we were not interested in drinking them and I thought I'd sell them today.

In perfect condition, it seems they would be worth $600 today. However, one had a slight bleed (a miniscule amount of wine had bled out of one bottle) and the other has a tinsy 2mm nick on the label - so at auction they are worth probably less than that. Other than my home, most of my financial investments haven't been that great or really haven't been investments at all.

My father realized some terrific investments. The ones I remember are two beach boxes that he paid $15,000 for and sold them three years later for $40,000. If he was to sell them today they would be worth many times that. He also bought a number plate for his car - maybe $300 - for the stock standard fee and sold it for $11,000 many years later.

What unusual investments have you bought that have turned into gold or what do you think you could buy now that might make you a motza in say 5 years time?

Duff beer when it first came out

bought a case, it was crap

drank it still and threw the cans out

weeks later it was withdrawn from sale and the price went through the roof

I remember seeing single cans being advertised in the trading post for like three hundred each

adolf said...

In perfect condition, it seems they would be worth $600 today. However, one had a slight bleed (a miniscule amount of wine had bled out of one bottle) and the other has a tinsy 2mm nick on the label - so at auction they are worth probably less than that.

So did you sell the wine? Bleed usually makes the wine worthless.

In 2004 I bought $15k of Sons of Gwalia, and 3 days later they called in the administrators. Ferrier Hodgson contact me ~ 3 years later offering something a long the lines of 24c in the $, but I needed to prove I owned the shares, I was mislead by the company... I sent in my contract note, and they said it was insufficient and ignored all my other letters.

So $15k + 2 days work... Sons of ****ing ****s. I've been dragging that loss through every tax return since.

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Only investment that's ever worked for me was when I bought Silver ETF @ $6, went to $36 within 18months... but it's back down to $28 now (4.5 years on).
Gold ETF is done OK, too... but we're only taking single digit growth.

i bought an xw gt from a mate's dad in 2001 for $14,000. his wife had been nagging him to get rid of it for years. sold it in 2007 just before things went bad, for $145,000 after spending about $60k on a restoration.
complete tin-arse luck.

I remember petermac33 was rabbiting on about selling everything you own to go and buy physical silver about two or thee years ago. I bought some SVL shares then. Don't even look at the value of them now - must have lost at least 75%. Eventually they will get there again - thanks Pete, good buddy!

With the Grange - they guy who said he'd buy them, I met with him yesterday, he just cleaned off the tiny stain from the top of one of the bottles and suggested I sell them at auction. Another $20 gone in petrol driving down there yesterday.

FlySurfer said...

Karma has a funny way of coming back to bite you... how's he doing these days?

Haha - fair comment Fly...I was never a fan of his - just thought I'd share the story - i can understand why that got a red thumb as it was a scummy act .

He's doing very well and would handle the situation very differently now. Although he went through that stage of 'win and make money at all costs', years on after a failed marriage and reassessment of life priorities, he has a very nice (gorgeous) wife and they spend a fair chunk of the year travelling around Aus in their caravan - living off profits made from investments made when he was younger. He's still got the wine too btw.

Re Grange, Penfolds do free testing and ullage checks at 'Grange Clinic's' - not sure how you access it now though, been out of the wine game for years. I actually had a Hill of Grace replaced by Henschke not so long ago as it was corked.