Investment and Real Estate Trivia from Palos Verdes to Around the World By Fred Fuld III

Investment and Real Estate Trivia from Palos Verdes to Around the World

By Fred Fuld III

Did you know that reading about trivia could improve your cognitive skills, take your mind off negative news, and allow you to be the life of parties showing off your knowledge of obscure information? Remembering unusual facts is a great way to exercise your mind, and trivia can be found everywhere.

Here is one local example. The New York banker, Frank Vanderlip, bought 25 square miles of land on the Palos Verdes Peninsula for $1.5 million in 1913. Today, you would pay more than that just to buy one average home on the Peninsula. Of course, the purchase price that Vanderlip paid is equal to $39,060,151 in today’s dollars, which is still a bargain, considering he bought what is now known as Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates.

More interesting information about Vanderlip is that he was president of what is currently Citibank, and he helped establish the Federal Reserve System. He and his wife even founded the first Montessori school in the US.

It is amazing how much trivia revolves around famous financial tycoons. For example, did you know that Warren Buffett appeared on a soap opera, not once, but twice? Back in 2008, he starred as himself in All My Children. Buffett was no slacker when he was growing up. Honing his business skills as a teenager, he delivered newspapers, sold magazine subscriptions, sold used golf balls, and sold Coca-Cola door-to-door. Ironically, his company, Berkshire Hathaway, owns 400 million shares of Coca-Cola now.

Many people think that the Berkshire Hathaway stock, currently trading at around $288,000 per share, is the most expensive stock ever. But that’s not true. The highest priced stock ever traded was Yahoo! Japan, which traded at $1,512,500 per share on Feb. 22, 2000. The company has since changed its name to Z Holdings and now trades at about $10 per shar

Speaking of Japan, the country has the oldest company in the world that is still in business. Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan is in the hotel and lodging industry and was founded in 705 AD.

The oldest stock exchange in the world is the Antwerp Bourse in Belgium, founded in 1460. The oldest stock exchange in the US was not the New York Stock Exchange; it was the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, established two years earlier in 1790.

Philadelphia Stock Exchange

The oldest stock certificate was issued in 1299. But of more interest, the stock certificate of Medical Marijuana Inc. is made out of the marijuana plant. Another marijuana stock, Cannabis Science, dropped from $550 a share in 1997 to half a cent last year before it stopped trading.

You might find it interesting that Jules Verne, Bill W. (founder of Alcoholics Anonymous), actor Brian Dennehy, Martha Stewart, Frank (“Lumpy" Rutherford) Bank who starred in Leave It to Beaver, and Florence Chadwick (famous swimmer who was the first woman to swim the 26 miles from Catalina Island to the California coastline), all had one thing in common. They were all stockbrokers.

Catalilna Island

I’m not sure about Catalina, but Waldron Island in the state of Washington has a law against having more than two toilets in your house.

The Just Room Enough Island has a great name that describes it perfectly, as there is just enough room for the house that is built on it. This island, near the Saint Lawrence River in Jefferson County, New York, is the smallest inhabited island in the world at approximately 3,300 square feet. It even has a very tiny beach.

If you are looking for a very small sized parcel of real estate, Owen County, Indiana had an interesting parcel up for sale at auction in 2005. It was a one-inch piece of land located in a wealthy area of the county west of Bloomington, with a minimum bid of $1,500. The county believed that the tiny lot was originally created from a larger lot owner who may have given one square inch to a friend or relative so that they could have access to a nearby community lake.

How would you like to own your own town with a gas station, store, and home on 9.9 acres? This town, located in Albany County, Wyoming, was originally called Buford and is now named PhinDeli Town Buford. It was put up for auction in 2013, and sold for $900,000. At the time of the sale, the population of the town was one.

Then again, maybe you are looking for something a bit more expensive, which brings us back to southern California. Currently, the most expensive house in the US has a unique name, “The One”. It is located in Bel Air and is reasonably priced at $500,000,000. At twice the size of The White House, you get 20 bedrooms, 27 bathrooms, a 40 seat movie theater, a bowing alley, a night club, and four swimming pools for your half a billion dollars.

Hopefully, trivia will bring a smile to your face, and those that you share your weird facts and knowledge with. It may even make you smarter.

Fred Fuld III, Consultant - Author - Journalist - Speaker - Trainer

Fred Fuld III was born in San Pedro and grew up on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. He is the author of several books, including his most recent, Investment Trivia, Real Estate Trivia, and a mystery novel set in Redondo Beach, Beach Detective: Exploding Surfboard.

He was a former executive in the financial services industry who started out working as a stockbroker, and later as a market maker on the options floor of the Pacific Stock Exchange. He then became vice president of a San Francisco-based investment management firm. He also worked as an adjunct professor for the College of Business of California State University East Bay.

He is the publisher of WallStreetNewsNetwork.com and has written numerous articles for various publications, including Friends of Financial History Magazine and the Bond and Share Society Journal. Television appearances include CNBC, Fox Business News, and Globo TV.

He has given speeches at the Museum of American Finance in New York City, The Money Show in both San Francisco and Las Vegas, California State University East Bay in Concord, and numerous other venues.