Gerald
12-28-10, 08:32 AM
In 1988, Vince Piazza talked his friend, Dodger's manager Tommy Lasorda, into drafting his son, a Miami-Dade Community College student. With the 1,390th overall pick, Lasorda drafted Mike Piazza, who went on to become a 12-time all star and perhaps the best hitting catcher of all time. That's a bargain. Similar sports superstars drafted late include Tom Brady in 2000 (drafted in the 6th round), Albert Pujols in 1999 (drafted in the 13th round), Ben Wallace in 1996 (undrafted) and Steve Young (traded to the 49ers for two bust draft picks). Earlier in the century, the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees -- at any price, the Yankees got a bargain.In another domain, imagine you'd invested in Standard Oil of New Jersey just after the monopoly of Standard Oil was broken up by the United States Supreme Court in 1911. One share in what is now ExxonMobil is worth almost 300,000 times its initial public offering (IPO) price. In another example, Microsoft is now worth more 20,000 times its IPO price of $21. But beating Microsoft is the mighty Cisco Systems, with an annual average growth rate of 10,000 percent and a high point of more than 100,000 percent of its IPO price [source: Seeking Alpha].
http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/budgeting/biggest-bargain-of-the-20th-century1.htm
http://money.howstuffworks.com/personal-finance/budgeting/biggest-bargain-of-the-20th-century1.htm