> At 8:31 PM +0300 7/10/03, Danny Van den Berghe wrote: > ... > >> If the only revenue of holding TGC shares would be the 7.2% dividend and > >> possible but not necessarily probable increase in share price, then I > >> would consider a bad investment simply because the returns are too low. > >> Even if full disclosure was given, 7.2% per annum is not exactly breath > >> taking. > > Well, these days, looking at things like US banks, it's not all that bad...
That was Robert's saying... > Well, let's take a look at TGC's example...They've been around since > Feb. 2000 (I'll admit, I knew in late 1999 they were coming!). They've > given away ten+ thousand dollars worth of fun stuff (see their news- > room page, and then hit "more stories" at the bottom). They have a > large player base (most of their players are NOT getting this list!) and > they have a reputation because it's July 2003. True. But also consider that a casino would not gain anything by not paying its customers. They know perfectly well that when $100 is spent into the casino's account, at least $90 of it never leaves the casino again because the player will inevitably loose it in the games. Only once in a while somebody will cash out some 'gains'. So why the casino would take away the $100 at once when their games can do it slowly and legally? The stock offering is a totally different ball game. > Could they be like the > eBay crook who had a good reputation but then took off? Sure! But > as I've said before, I think DBourse is about making a point, and not > just about making a profit, so I'd be surprised if they ran off... I would be surprised too if they ran off. Because there are much cleaner ways to get away with it. If we get more stock offerings of this nature, it is much more likely the secret management just lowers or slashes the dividend, citing lower income or losses in the business (which nobody can verify). They don't need to run away. And you cannot say they are scammers because the numbers are not published, so they may be honest (but maybe not). Because they cannot be proven to be a scam they can just continue their website business and continu pocketing all the profits themselves. The money they have raised in the ipo stays in their pockets, and the public shareholders see their stock price go down to zero as hope dwindles to ever see a dividend. Perfect setup for a scam isn't it? Only needs some patience. As scammers become aware of this opportunity, you could see more and more fraudulent stock offers being done in this completely laissez-faire arena. And before you know it the honest entrepreneurs will start giving management names and audited numbers, just to differentiate themselves from the fraudulent stock offers. That's what happened 300 years ago, and now we are here just reinventing the wheel. > If they ARE crooks, they're very good, very-subtle crooks. Most of > the crooks 'round these parts, for example, don't give away tens of > thousands of bucks worth of stuff/gold-comps and spend years to > make a scam that seems believable to people like JP May -- crooks > are not that patient! I agree , most crooks are not patient and will take off as soon as they can collect a few thousand $. But some crooks are very patient. Some can wait for 10 years, just continuing their scam in an honest fashion as long as more money is coming in. In any case, as many people hold a sizeable portion of their life savings in stocks, it is only understandeable that they demand some guarantee against the worst case scenarios. Management names and reliable numbers do just that. In absence of any guarantee these TGC shares cannot be considered a serious investment. Lottery ticket is a better description, notwithstanding the good reputation of TGC so far. There is a famous saying in stock market circles: "A great company is not always a great investment" Danny --- You are currently subscribed to e-gold-list as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Use e-gold's Secure Randomized Keyboard (SRK) when accessing your e-gold account(s) via the web and shopping cart interfaces to help thwart keystroke loggers and common viruses.
