What if you had bought Apple stock instead of that iPod?

Or Jobs health situation could have been worse, the company could have died, the iPod could have ended up blowing up in peoples pockets.<p>What if's are always interesting in retrospect. I invested in apple last year at around the same time, made a small chunk of cash after a month, got out and never looked back. Had I left it there I'd be driving a bmw, assuming history would have unfolded exactly as it did.

Adjust for inflation (2.8% mean for 1997 to now [1]) and the $330k value of a PowerBook goes down to $230k in 1997 dollars.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=US+inflation+from+1997+to+2010" rel="nofollow">http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=US+inflation+from+1997+...</a>

Just as an idea: what if YC companies all offered stock to HN users as a complete, or portion of their next investment round. So if 15 users put in $5000 each, that's $75000 - enough for another 6 months runway at least, and they could probably set the valuation higher than they would with a VC. Also, these could well be value-added investors because of the skills, feedback and experience presented.

On the other hand, if you opted for the Nomad back in 2001, you definitely made the right choice vs. buying stock in Creative Labs.

The thing you learn in stock trading is that you never rue missed/mistaken investments. Otherwise you will spend all the time doing this :)

This is almost depressing. As a freshman in college, I bought a PowerBook. If only I had bought the equivalent value of Apple stock, I could have afforded my entire college education.

One trading "strategy" that I use is that I buy the stock of companies whose products I find myself buying or using a lot. AAPL, AMZN, etc.

I'm still optimistic about my conservative, iPad-based portfolio.

Nicely done! If you were inspired by this thread -- <a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1291809" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1291809</a> -- a shout-out would be nice. Glad to see the detailed implementation, either by inspiration or independent-invention, in any case.<p>But: only back to 1997?<p>What if I hadn't bought that Powerbook Duo 230 in late 1992? (~$2200 from Whole Earth Access in Berkeley, if I remember correctly.)

If too many had done that then perhaps the stock wouldn't be so valuable today. :-)

This is very cool to see. However, you shouldn't have accounted for the splits like you did (I think you had it right the first time you did it). Prices you find in databases/charts for stock prices are already split adjusted.<p>For example, Apple PowerBook G3 250 (Original/Kanga/3500): Price stated at $5700 released on 11/10/97. On 11/10/97 AAPL closed at $18.37/share. If you spent all $5700 you would have 310.3 shares (assume you can buy partial shares). On/around 6/5/2000 the stock split so you would now have 620ish shares. On/Around 3/28/05 stock split and you would have 1240ish shares. Multiple this by the stock price ~$270/share and you have ~$330,000. As someone already pointed out, you should not take into account inflation because the $330k is the amount you have have in the bank TODAY if you had bought the stock back on 11/10/97.<p>If you look at the stock chart you will see the price reports on 11/10/97 for AAPL is $4.59/share, this accounts for the split (It was actually $18.37 on that day, but divide by 4 because of the splits and you get $4.59). You can see <a href="http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=AAPL&#38;a=10&#38;b=1&#38;c=1997&#38;d=11&#38;e=26&#38;f=1997&#38;g=d" rel="nofollow">http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=AAPL&#38;a=10&#38;b=1&#38;c=...</a> for details about this (You will notice a "close" column and "adjusted close" column. The "adjusted close" is what you will see on all the charts, but "close" was the actual close that day. This is done to avoid massive jumps on the charts that would make them less useful.<p>Hope that helps, and once again, this was a really cool thing to see, it really puts some things in perspective.

How much did Microsoft lose by divesting itself of Apple stock prematurely?

I wish they had the original Mac 128k I bought in the fall of 1984. I painted all summer to be able to buy that.

What if you had bought Apple call options instead of AAPL stock?<p>If you bought AAPL April $200 Call on Feb. 1 (at $10.20), you would made around 370% return. But obviously trading options is more risky, because you have to get both the direction and timing right.

Would be really neat if there were a few of the earlier models too, for comparison

See, if you and me and all of us would have buying Apple's shares instead of its products, Apple's shares would have never being making this tremendous performance.<p>I think it is a paradox every shareholder face from time to time.

Can you also include transaction costs to give a truer picture. This will be more relevant for the smaller gains. Also remember these are pre tax.

I only wish this chart reflected reality. I'm looking at my Fidelity statement for the AAPL stock I bought in 1999 and 2000. In actual dollars, my original investment is now worth 11x what it was back then. Your chart shows stock bought nine years ago is worth 35 times the original investment. Maybe I should ask Fidelity if they've made a mistake...

Reminds me of a 'Rich dad - Poor dad' seminar I attended on my trip to Philippines.<p>In my case, I would have saved just a few hundred dollars, I got free AppleCare with my MacBook in 2008 and Apple has already replaced too many things, from my battery to fan to what not.

If I hadn't bought that iPod zillion years ago, I would not read the question today^^ All kudos go to iPad buyers, all money to Apple designers.

Can you add annualized return for each entry?

Wait I would have made 10% on my money just by putting it in Apple shares and not the bank for the last week or two?

What current tech company (other than Apple) has this kind of potential?

super cool.

Time to sell AAPL? =)