[Terry]

Wow. A lot of good “traditional” investment thinking here, and a lot fewer goofball replies than I expected. Thank you all for taking the time to answer.

Of the suggestions posted so far, Baulucky has come the closest to what I’m looking for with the old gold thing. I have a friend who did very well with that back in the 70's. He went out knocking on doors with his gram scale and acid test kit and bought up old eyeglasses, class rings, that sort of stuff. It’s more actual “work” than I want to get involved in, but it would probably be very good for some of you ambitious guys.

If anybody has any more ideas, let me repeat that I am not interested in stocks, bonds, or any sort of “paper” investment – I’m all set with that stuff. I had always planned to retire at 55 and managed to do it at 50 instead ... so I’m not looking for traditional major life-time retirement planning investments, but rather something to do with some of the “extra” money poker generates.

RE: Drugs. I haven’t had a gram scale since the 60's ... and I ingested or gave away more than I sold, anyway.

RE: Coins. I wasn’t thinking of a rare coin collection type thing. I’ve seen / heard of bags of (unsorted?) silver coins sold by weight, but know nothing about it. Viable? Worth looking into?

RE: Gold. I would disagree that gold has no intrinsic value ... it does have industrial uses, as does silver. I realize, though, that silver is very iffy and can actually cost more to mine than it can be sold for. That said, do you think gold coins, even if they are not spectacular investment performers, have the potential to beat inflation? How about a period of severe inflation, should that come to be?

RE: Real estate. Not for me. My brother owns dozens of rental properties ... can you say “work”? ... or “headaches”? I even hated owning a house. Let me just pay the rent and call the landlord when something goes wrong. That particular American dream has never been one of mine.

RE: Risk. I’m not at all adverse to risk. I’ve made my living in and around gambling for a long long time. Something very speculative would be just fine, so long as it doesn’t involve a lot of work, including paperwork.

RE: Should have posted in Stock Market Forum. Nah. I’m looking for non-traditional Zoo type thinking.

So there ya go ... It took me a while to figure out what I’m talking about, but it seems I’m looking for “items” that can be readily bought and sold that have some value that will probably increase at least at the rate of inflation. Now that’s the American dream.