Let's say it was '97 and you put your money in something relativly safe, say a money market, CD or even municipal bond.
Of course returns would be different depending on what you invested in but I have to put SOMETHING down so grabbed a site that had historical CD rates and took the 1 year terms and then rounded to the nearest cent. Assuming I didn't fat finger something here we go:
http://www.jumbocdinvestments.com/histo ... .htm#tline
'97 = $200
'97-'98 = $200 + 5.73% = $211.46
'98-'99 = $200 + 5.78% = $223.68
'99-'00 = $200 + 7.09% = $239.54
'00-'01 = $200 + 4.59% = $250.54
'01-'02 = $200 + 2.96% = $257.95
'03-'04 = $200 + 2.05% = $263.40
'04-'05 = $200 + 2.67% = $270.69
'05-'06 = $200 + 4.19% = $281.59
'06-'07 = $200 + 5.40% = $296.80
'07-'08 = $200 + 5.44% = $312.95
'08-'09 = $200 + 3.93% = $325.24
'09-'10 = $200 + 2.02% = $331.81
'10-'11 = $200 + 1.35% = $336.29
Or another way to look at it is that the total return over this time was about 68%
So there there's what your money could have been doing during that time....Now I'm sure the money was spent a long time ago, but maybe we see how much they made in total?
What was the print run for the book?
500 limited at $200 and 52 lettered at $450
(500 x $200) = $100,000 + (52 x $450) = $23,400
TOTAL in 1997 = $123,400
TOTAL in 2011 = $207,492
Potential interest that could have been made off this but probably wasn't = $84,092