Research might reveal financial, collectible value
Picture this: You're poring over your grandfather's papers and come across a stock certificate for a company called Haloid. You've never heard of it, and you can't find it on any stock exchange, so you toss the stock certificate out with Gramps' National Geographics .
Big mistake.
Haloid, chartered in 1906, became Haloid Xerox in 1958. In 1961, it changed its name to Xerox. After numerous stock splits, a single share of Haloid purchased in 1910 would now be worth 48,600 Xerox shares, which in turn would be worth more than $1 million. Try getting that kind of cash for those National Geographics .