Think That Stock Is Worthless? Don’t Be So Sure Company Uncovers Value In Seemingly Worthless Stocks

Every time Sammy E. Smith of Steilacoom cleared out his files, he considered tossing his Investors’ Overseas Services stock certificates into the garbage.

He had marked them with a note indicating they were valueless; after all, IOS had gone bankrupt in the ‘70s and Robert Vesco, the man who took over the company, had gone to jail.

But Smith held on to the certificates nevertheless. “I thought they might make a nice souvenir,” he says.

Today he is pleased he didn’t discard them. They were not worthless, as he had supposed.

With the help of Stock Search International, Smith has received $436 for one certificate of 3,200 shares in IOS and is due $1,200 for another certificate in a related stock fund that he also had thought was worthless.

Thousands of people might have such stock or bond certificates that they think have no value, says Micheline Masse, who runs Stock Search International in Tucson, Ariz.

“But they could be worth money,” Masse says. “There are hundreds of billions of dollars that are unclaimed or are tied up in stock certificates that people think are worthless.”

The company in which Smith had invested had many stockholders who thought their stake in the company was valueless once it collapsed, Masse explained.

“But we have had people who have recovered $30,000,” she added.

The stock fund in which Smith had his other certificate, Value Capital, was liquidated in 1974, she said. The liquidated money was held in trust by the governor of Nassau and still can be recovered.

Masse has helped people claim more than $5 million since she started her company in 1969.

The largest amount she has recovered for one person was $160,000 in shares in North European Oil Corp.

After floating a penny stock offering at 25 cents a share in the ‘30s, the company was unsuccessful and closed its books in 1937, Masse says. But in 1957, oil was discovered in the surrounding properties and the surrounding owners decided to reopen the North European Oil Corp. because claims were still registered in its name, she said.

Today, people can claim $130,000 for every $100 invested in the ‘30s - and a million shares are still outstanding.

Masse identifies three reasons stock certificates often are overlooked:

The company changed its name.

Some 2,500 companies change their names every year in North America, Masse said.

“These changes in names have occurred since the beginning of the century,” she explained. “It is easy to lose track of them.”

The company collapses.

Often people overlook these stock certificates because they don’t realize that when a company collapses, funds often are still available for payment to stockholders.

Collectors’ items.

“Sometimes they are worth more as collectors’ items than they are worth intrinsically,” Masse said.

For example, the Alabama Gold and Copper company never found any metals, and did not own any property. But the signature on the stock certificates is that of Pat Garrett, the sheriff who shot Billy the Kid. The stock certificates are worth $2,600.