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Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 4:21 pm
by beauanderos
People are fantasizing about suddenly winning greater magnitudes of wealth than they could ever imagine. Now they're talking
1.3 billion. And, yes... such numbers are unimaginable... as are your odds of winning. 292,000,000 to one. :shock:
That's like having to pick the right day of the year between now and the year 797,984 BC :roll:

Your chances of winning are infinitesimal. But if you feel engulfed by a wave of exhilaration and discover the compulsion to buy
irresistable, go ahead and pick up... one ticket. Just don't bet the farm.

It would be interesting to perform a thought experiment, though, because... someday in the future... what we are witnessing now will have
application to what we can expect to experience then. This same frenzy, excitement and clamor to purchase tickets could easily apply to the rush to
obtain silver and gold among the public as their prices soar to unimaginable heights. Everywhere you turn, it would be all they're talking about.

"Are you going to buy some?" "Yeah, right after work!" The secretary walks by and says "I skipped lunch, so I could buy some."
Someone else chimes in "who wants to buy into a pool?" "Allocated or unallocated?" an educated hard money man asks.

It would be on every television channel, talking heads debating how high could prices go? "It's already surpassed all previous records!"
"Last month silver was just $300, now it's at $500! They're saying it could easily go to $1000!" "Will gold break $20,000? No one ever
thought it would cross $10,000 an ounce before last week! :o

Folks would watch headlines, their eyes glued to the screen wide with amazement :shock: as dollar values climb hour by hour,
accelerating by the minute, astounding even those who thought they had some idea of their value. Rapidly escalating prices of mining stocks would scroll
across the bottom of their screens as financial channels began showing nothing but interviews with James Sinclair and Eric Sprott. CNN would run a
special, 'The Vindication of Peter Schiff', to the embarrassment of CNBC commentators.

When this happens, this flood of sudden interest will, at first, cause bottlenecks at online dealers, and long lines at LCS. At some point
the armed guard will lock the doors announcing "Sorry folks, they're all sold out." The websites of Provident Metals, APMEX and others will
post "down for maintenance" when you attempt to access those sites.

When the precious metals frenzy reaches the state that this current Powerball insanity has, the old adage will finally prove true. If you don't
hold it (by then), you won't own it. Only those "precious metals lottery" ticket holders who had already purchased their various stacks of numbers
years before will be entitled to claim their winning prize at that time.

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Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 7:14 pm
by johnbrickner
Well written Ray. I was easily able to visualize the story line. Better was almost feeling like I was there as it was happening.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 8:01 pm
by 68Camaro
What were the odds that a political novice with no practical experience at doing anything, born overseas no less, and arguably one of the most self-absorbed narcissists we've ever seen in the office (oh sorry, nope, can't quite say that because there was Bill), could become president. 1 in a billion. But hey, it happened!

If you don't play they don't pay.

Yeah - the odds are ridiculous. Greater chance of virtually anything else you can imagine happening. But on the other hand ... it's only $2. I spend more than that on coffee every day.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 11:15 pm
by beauanderos
I didn't say I didn't buy a ticket. But only one. And for sure not in a pool! Far too many complications should you ever win that way. :?

And Rich? One in a billion? I didn't know we had a billion citizens old enough to run for Prez in the United States??? Hmmm, let me think
about those odds. Oh! Facepalm. You must be referring to the point that you don't have to be a natural born citizen to win any more!

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Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Sun Jan 10, 2016 11:30 pm
by Recyclersteve
I wonder what percent of psychics buy lottery tix...

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 2:15 am
by pitw
It seems like a $2 chance to screw up the world you have created for yourself. I spent 58 years getting to where I am, worked for free to get experience I wanted, worked for food and lodging for experience, raising kids for the experience and I sure as [L] would hate to have all I done taken away by a $2 ticket. Can you imagine all the suckcockers that would bother you for that kind of money? Would you really want to move to a secluded place to hide because you are suddenly rich? I wouldn't give up my neighbors for all the gold in the world so a measly billion sure wouldn't be worth it. Having friends that will come help do the worst of jobs in the middle of the night is worth more than being able to call and pay someone who doesn't care. Rant over. :wave:

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 12:31 pm
by Sanford02
pitw wrote:Having friends that will come help do the worst of jobs in the middle of the night is worth more than being able to call and pay someone who doesn't care.


This is truth.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 1:38 pm
by hobo finds

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 5:25 pm
by InfleXion
The odds I find more compelling are the mortality rates of lottery winners. I'm with pitw. It's tempting to grab a ticket, but I do believe my life will turn out better by not drawing all the attention that being rich comes with. Plus it's hard to instill a work ethic in people who don't learn the value of money. I feel like there are a lot of pitfalls in vast wealth and I'm happy to be in the working class.

A friend of the family who is sometimes strangely clairvoyant (really good at Yahtzee and gambling games, predicted the final score of the game yesterday, etc.) said her mother had a set of numbers many years ago that she had kept with her. With one of the powerballs the last few years she had a feeling that she should go with those numbers, and asked her son to go buy the ticket with certain numbers. According to her (I know I know this isn't proveable, just a story I heard) she would have gotten every number right including the powerball, but her son was late to the store and wasn't able to get the ticket for her. She said she dared not tell him or her husband that they could have won. I figure they got lucky they didn't get that ticket.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 5:30 pm
by Cu Penny Hoarder
Let's indulge the fantasy... :mrgreen:

What would you guys do with that kind of cash?... Buy real estate?... Buy gold bullion?... Buy an island somewhere?

I'm interested to hear what you would do.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 5:36 pm
by InfleXion
I'd buy a new house with a lot of land, a strong security system, and a couple more vehicles for multi-purposeness. Then I'd put probably $100m into gold and a safe, secure place to store it. I'd also give $1m to each of my friends and family, and then start my own charity because I don't trust a lot of the others out there to do the right thing with the money. Then I'd buy my own radio station and produce a record album, and start getting rational thinking on the airwaves, and I'd probably get offed shortly after that.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 6:46 pm
by hobo finds

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 6:47 pm
by pitw
If I won it. :shock: Well I built my own house including all plumbing, heating, electrical and everything except glueing down the Fn linoleum so I won't need another in my lifetime. I'd probably buy a 777 and have it exploded at 30,000 feet as I always wanted to see that happen. I'd buy as much good hunting land as is possible with half of it. I'd buy 1,000,000 ounces of gold to place in said 777 and probably fritter away the rest. :roll: Not one dime to charity but a large amount to support kids school sports.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 7:14 pm
by smalltimeopn
I wonder what percentage of those who selected the Hershey chocolate bar over the 10 oz Ag bar are buying lotto tickets? LOL

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 7:47 pm
by AGgressive Metal
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObNy18dLaAA[/youtube]

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 8:44 pm
by beauanderos
AGgressive Metal wrote:[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObNy18dLaAA[/youtube]

How apropos is that!!! 8-) :clap: :thumbup:

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 8:55 pm
by cooyon
I would buy the PA state legislature and the governor, and have them pass senate bill 76 and the medical marijuana bill.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 9:12 pm
by johnbrickner
I'd invite many of the best minds here on RC (you know who you are) with an envelope containing plane tickets, a few grand to put things in order and explicit instructions to follow (think similar to a group that visited Jeckyl Island, GA a 108 years ago). There's an island in the Caribbean, looks to be British called Mustique. Mick Jagger and Grace Jones are known to frequent it. David Bowie won't be visiting anymore. Our friend Neil was given provisions as the vanguard to establish accommodations and hire necessary employees months ahead. Hereinafter to be referred to as the House of RC. None of the flights are direct and would appear to be quite random in getting there by flight path and arrival date.

After a few of days of meeting and greeting each other with some touring, sailing, fishing, sailing, a couple of visits to Basil's and the Cotton Club with all the necessary effects to make us all feel quite at home. Once the camaraderie and the esprit de corps was high we would meet together at the House of RC, establish and implement The Raptor Fund. Starting with Neil's presentation on "Hezekiah Wellington and Stout LLC" registered in St. Lucia, with offices, (mail drops) in London and Zug, Switzerland. Hezekiah Wellington and Stout LLC, would be a wholly owned subsidiary of "HWS Resources Ltd" registered in the Bahamas.

See: http://www.realcent.org/viewtopic.php?f ... aptor+fund for details.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Mon Jan 11, 2016 11:06 pm
by TwoAndAHalfCents
I would put the money to use trying to corner the silver market. :mrgreen:

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 5:58 am
by fansubs_ca
$5,000,000 and I'd retire.

If I had a few Billion I'd start my own cell phone company when the 600Mhz spectrum
auction happens up here. (I think that will likely be the last major spectrum auction for a
long time if no new entrants show up for it, there might not be annother chance to shake
up the market again.) About a Billion-ish isn't quite enough to do it properly now a days.
(Meaning reasonable coverage of your own to start and no debt.) From there just grow
the coverage as you make profit, never take on debt.

Somewhere a bit past the $100,000,000,000 level I might start getting frivilous. ^_^

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 9:55 am
by Tourney64
Winning the jackpot by myself would require significant security. Nice houses with bowling alley, lots of land. Home theater, workout room, arcade/game room, pool table, indoor and outdoor pools, secret safe security rooms, wet bars. pole barn to store RV's. Basketball/tennis courts.

Give a $140MM to my family to help them be financially secure, however a few of them would not get a dime until they successfully completed Dave Ramsey's Total Money Makeover Class.

Lots of gold.

I would get some things done medically that would help me, like finish some dental work that I have stretched over the last 3 years. Get lasik done for me and the wife. The wife wants some minor cosmetic surgery, I wouldn't mind if she got certain parts improved, only I love her just like she is.

Contribute to the political campaigns that I believe would restore this country to be more constitutional conservative. Without the right leadership of this country, all the money and property are put in peril.

I would try to spend a significant portion of the money on donations to help those who need a helping hand up. I would not donate as a hand out.

I would contract to build the ultimate coin sorter that would go thru large volumes of coins, be dependable, and look for errors or desired coins like copper and silver, and grade any that are desirable.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:29 am
by hobo finds

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 11:53 am
by hobo finds
I just saw in California you can buy lotto tickets at the gas pump with credit cards :!: That cant be that good of idea....

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 12:42 pm
by NDFarmer
hobo finds wrote:I just saw in California you can buy lotto tickets at the gas pump with credit cards :!: That cant be that good of idea....


Just one more way to get money from those that can not afford it and should not playing in the first place.

Re: Powerball Fever

PostPosted: Tue Jan 12, 2016 1:26 pm
by pennypicker
I would buy every PCGS & NGC $20 gold piece & $10 Indian gold piece I could find.

I would also donate substantially to St. Judes Children's Hospital because I would be feeling very guilty...and its a great cause!!!

I would then try to convince Taylor Swift to move with me to a deserted island. 8-)