If you were magically transported back to 1985, how would you make your fortune?
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I am and always will be a Trojan. Thankfully, we longer have to play at master bates field, as we did when I attended that fine institution of higher learning.
on jan 1 1986, i would make an appointment to meet with a fabulously wealthy gambler of the female persuasion who has an interest in football. i would bet her 20K (keeping it reasonably small so that she takes the bet) telling her that the iowa running back who never fumbles will fumble the ball not once or twice or thrice but four times that day. knowing that i don't have a dime to my name, she might refuse to take the bet. that's when i show her my hrot worthy dong and offer to pleasure her for 1 year straight if i lose.
once i have the 20K, i'll invest it like the others in this thread are saying
once i have the 20K, i'll invest it like the others in this thread are saying
What a salacious accusation. That rose bowl was totally legit. Ball was slippery due to the dewy pasadena weather. Ugh, I think I punched my tv that day and broke my VCR after that UNLV debacle.
to this day i haven't seen that game and have only heard about it on the iowa boards...but it's still always stuck with me...
The easiest place to start if you were dead broke is to turn in Ted Kaczynski for the reward money. Then Gary Ridgeway and Dennis Rader.
There was a Korean show that came out with this premise. One of the ideas in the show was to buy the foreign distribution for every blockbuster movie. Buy land in places that will soon be developed. Invest in the tech giants early. Short the Nikkei in 1989.
There was a Korean show that came out with this premise. One of the ideas in the show was to buy the foreign distribution for every blockbuster movie. Buy land in places that will soon be developed. Invest in the tech giants early. Short the Nikkei in 1989.
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You wouldn’t be able to remember at least Super Bowl winners? World Series? Some big boxing matches?
Buster Douglas was 42-1 underdog. Any dumbass would know to bet on that if transported back in time.
Villanova upsetting Georgetown was in early 1985. Considering the spread was almost 10 points I am guess a money line bet would have paid nicely.
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Betting only the winners in the 80’s and 90’s sounds like a good way to get yourself killed.
Can you spot me some pants? I don't want to have to spend part of my 50 bucks on pants. That's some BS
To become wealthy, I would have to have the capital to invest, the quickest route to said capital, besides stealing, would be gambling.
I would work my way to Vegas, secure a job as a dealer, or something else that would provide cash payments daily. As @Nole Lou Lou mentioned, you may not remember the score, but pick your favorite team or memorable games and hammer the money line.
1985 Noles Huge upset early against Nebraska - 3 losses Auburn, Miami, FL
1985 Bears, everyone remembers they won every game except Miami
When we get to the Superbowl, I make my move-
Start at Ceasars and hit the Refrigerator Perry prop for as much as they allow at +2500
Play crazy parlays and props, any crazy bet they will take, this is the last night in Vegas.
So after that huge score, get out of town, go to Florida and, relax, prepare for 2/26/1986. Everything not used on booze and hookers goes into the Microsoft IPO.
Now set for life, I travel around and invest in startups like Amazon and Google to further pad my pocket.
You could buy land, stocks, etc. but that takes too long to make a profit.
Why wait that long?
Make bets and earn money instantly.
Why wait that long?
Make bets and earn money instantly.
You should watch it. It's pretty incredible. I was 15 at the time and even I knew it was baked.
At 2400 baud, we had to download 16 usenet files to make one pic. It was still worth it!
Yeah, I was thinking a few prop bets, futures or parleys would be the best way to make some lump sum cash without sticking around and drawing too much attention. Hitting a couple big ones and getting out with some seed money seems a lot more feasible than trying to bet games at a time on a regular cadence for income.
I’d be ahead of the curve for all the “hard to find” Christmas items from the late 80’s and shit- stock up and sell them at a premium for capitol. Think beanie babies or something
OP’s spin on this has me rethinking this.
For one, I’d have $50 bucks to start in his scenarios so…
Secondly, what’s to say the land I buy (future destin) is actually developed if I’m buying it? That ripple effect worries me from land speculation. Land is still cheaper then, so it would be in my plan, but not as a “future knowledge” investment
It all seems to come back to betting, but the ripple effect I guess could change some games?
It’s almost as if the more successful you become or wealthy/power- the greater chance you have to change history inadvertently
I was thinking about that too. To me, that might be a little risky when it comes to messing with the timeline. I was thinking cabbage patch kids or whatever. But the ways those fads kind of took off is the way things go viral today, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what makes something become a phenomenon like that.
Let's say you bought a thousand cabbage patch kids the summer of 1983. What if you somehow disrupted the market forces...you took too many off the market, and now there weren't enough kids that actually had them to create the jealousy to turn into a craze? Or you just happened to take a shipment that was destined for a place that ended up having people assault each other over them? No stock, no fights, no news stories to further drive the craze. I'd be a little risky to me if somehow it didn't take off the same way because of my entry into the market
However, I think beanie babies would be safer, that was a pretty steady thing for a couple years there. If you could wait for it.
I was also wondering what you could get Jordan rookies or unopened packs for in 1985.
Sports gambling and then buy apple/Microsoft/Amazon.
But also knee cap Jim McMahon so the bears never win and that god awful Superbowl shuffle never happens.
But also knee cap Jim McMahon so the bears never win and that god awful Superbowl shuffle never happens.
To start, I would drop that $50 on Villanova to win the 85 NCAA tourney. then I would move on from there.
Would do some small sports betting across the globe to live a nice but quiet, modest lifestyle. Would put some in famous stocks as mentioned above.
But the real gold would come from this. I’d hide a few cameras (high-def Go-Pro/night vision tech from the future) around Nicole Brown-Simpson’s place prior to June 12, 1994. Transfer all the footage to VHS and make copies. I would then send a copy to OJ Simpson via Robert Kardashian. I would begin blackmailing OJ and also Kardashian because he had knowledge of the bloody clothes. Part of the blackmail to Kardashian is that he agrees to move his family to Nebraska and force his daughters to farm work for the rest of their lives, thus saving civilization from becoming infinitely dumber and making Nebraskans somehow dumber than they already are at the same time. I would bleed OJ and Kardashian dry and use those funds to invest in more Apple and Amazon (would be available shortly thereafter). Not crazy money here since we know OJ went bankrupt but enough to live quite nicely.
The real money comes a little later when I would sell the footage to the highest bidder (hello Rupert Murdoch) after the trial and that is where I think I could get 9 figures.
Rinse / Repeat. Plant go-pro’s outside places where major drama went down and sell the footage to highest, sleaziest bidder!
But the real gold would come from this. I’d hide a few cameras (high-def Go-Pro/night vision tech from the future) around Nicole Brown-Simpson’s place prior to June 12, 1994. Transfer all the footage to VHS and make copies. I would then send a copy to OJ Simpson via Robert Kardashian. I would begin blackmailing OJ and also Kardashian because he had knowledge of the bloody clothes. Part of the blackmail to Kardashian is that he agrees to move his family to Nebraska and force his daughters to farm work for the rest of their lives, thus saving civilization from becoming infinitely dumber and making Nebraskans somehow dumber than they already are at the same time. I would bleed OJ and Kardashian dry and use those funds to invest in more Apple and Amazon (would be available shortly thereafter). Not crazy money here since we know OJ went bankrupt but enough to live quite nicely.
The real money comes a little later when I would sell the footage to the highest bidder (hello Rupert Murdoch) after the trial and that is where I think I could get 9 figures.
Rinse / Repeat. Plant go-pro’s outside places where major drama went down and sell the footage to highest, sleaziest bidder!
Hmm. That would be really tough to maintain or grow if you could pull it off. Unless you're an absolute whiz programming and really dedicated, would need a team. But if you could time it right around the .com boom and sell high, you could make a nice chunk quickly.
I actually already can code a basic version of Amazon (which was all it was to start) myself. Either way, you have 8 years before a go live date - so plenty of time to get that 386 humming to life and start coding.
Assuming the dead-broke part of this scenario, I'm going to go with baseball cards. 1985 Mark McGwire to get it started.
I'm 40 so these are things I knew had value and fairly specifically WHEN they had their value when I was kid. Load up on the cheap and sell them at the right times. Keep in mind people, this is landline era with no internet much less an online stock trading app, so even buying stocks fresh off the banana time-boat isn't as easy it sounds. Sports betting? Who are you going to place bets with?
It might take a few years to get it rolling but sports cards were what I knew from that particular era. Buying Apple stock is great and all and buying any large amount is surely a fortune today, but when do you enter the market? I have no idea what the stock price was in the late 80s/early 90s because I was 10 years old... When do you go from short to long on these investments? The more you can capitalize on early and generate decent fast wealth will lead to exponential growth later.
So long story short, get it rolling with sports cards that 8 year old me knew very well and had the ability to time the market on. I don't know what year Apple stock blew up but without a chest sheet I do know to acquire every single '89 Ken Griffey Jr Upper Deck rookie on the planet...
I'm 40 so these are things I knew had value and fairly specifically WHEN they had their value when I was kid. Load up on the cheap and sell them at the right times. Keep in mind people, this is landline era with no internet much less an online stock trading app, so even buying stocks fresh off the banana time-boat isn't as easy it sounds. Sports betting? Who are you going to place bets with?
It might take a few years to get it rolling but sports cards were what I knew from that particular era. Buying Apple stock is great and all and buying any large amount is surely a fortune today, but when do you enter the market? I have no idea what the stock price was in the late 80s/early 90s because I was 10 years old... When do you go from short to long on these investments? The more you can capitalize on early and generate decent fast wealth will lead to exponential growth later.
So long story short, get it rolling with sports cards that 8 year old me knew very well and had the ability to time the market on. I don't know what year Apple stock blew up but without a chest sheet I do know to acquire every single '89 Ken Griffey Jr Upper Deck rookie on the planet...
Invest in or just watch more of? I read somewhere that one of the top ten regrets of the dying is they didn’t watch more internet porn. And they didn’t upgrade their DSL speed sooner.
Wait until after Game 4.1985 you say. I would bet on the Kansas City Royals, a 100/1 longshot against the St. Louis Cardinals. Knowing Don Denkinger would throw the series on back to back nights in the greatest travesty in the history of sport...
I've actually had this question run through my head a number of times before. I think someone posted something that trigger it to pop up again. I think it's sort of a fantasy that pops into everyone's head once in a while. But being the boring realist that I am, I couldn't help but wonder exactly how I might navigate through that fantasy and if it would ever be close to being as fulfilling as I might have imagined.
NKE was in the .40- .48 range , i bought it at .46 in 1988 and watched it roll over, SPLIT 5 times, 2-1, 2-1, 2-1 ,3-1 and 2-1 and still holding it today. Damn, only bought $100. and that still upsets me as i had the funds to go much higher. TODAY, ITS $126.40.
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The exact same way Biff did.I'd put all my disposable income into apple/microsoft/gap
Microsoft - 39 Year Stock Price History | MSFT
Historical daily share price chart and data for Microsoft since 1986 adjusted for splits and dividends. The latest closing stock price for Microsoft as of January 17, 2025 is <strong>429.03</strong>. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>The all-time high Microsoft stock closing price...www.macrotrends.net
Apple - 45 Year Stock Price History | AAPL
Historical daily share price chart and data for Apple since 1980 adjusted for splits and dividends. The latest closing stock price for Apple as of January 17, 2025 is <strong>229.98</strong>. <ul style='margin-top:10px;'> <li>The all-time high Apple stock closing price was...
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Sell the gap stock around 2000.
Unfortunately my 20 years old self was more interested in chicks and booze and lived paycheck to paycheck.
