First American Scientific Corp. (fka FASC)

[terry hallinan]

Jagman,

I have held BIPH for over 2 years. It has been far from a smooth ride. Got a mite concerned when BIPH shelved its founding platform and was running low on cash with the price in the dumpster and sold half my position for a nano profit. Wish I hadn't now.

FASC is relatively new to me. I have [blush] taken profits and have currently a tiny position. BIPH is by far my largest holding, largely due to appreciation.

Perhaps more to the point, there are numerous large companies that I once held as beaten down stocks. I did the worst thing any investor can do. I took my profits.

In some cases I made a decision that seemed quite reasonable to me at the time and one I would perhaps repeat without knowing the future. I sold ConAgra when they bought Banquet Foods from RCA. Seemed a horrible move. ConAgra was at the time a regional flour miller and contract chicken producer with a checkered history. Superb management turned that Banquet acquisition into a goldmine that helped build a giant.

I can also tell you about disasters I should have sold - some of which I own now but you didn't ask about that.

Overall I will grant you that most purchases of small stocks have not turned out well but the good ones have been good enough to pay for the others generally.

I have not really distinguished between BB board stocks and other penny stocks but one stock that was a huge winner was not listed anywhere nor did it have any kind of underwriter when I was young and foolish and bought a few shares from a tombstone ad. The stock was General Numismatics. You later probably heard of it as The Franklin Mint. Man, what a ride those promoters took the investors on for a couple of decades. Then Mike Wallace did them in with a silver bucket on 60 Minutes and the stock lost 98% of its value in a few days. I had beaten everybody out the door long before. I calculated once that I would have made $50K from a $60 investment. Might have gotten $60 back from $50K if I bought when FM was a NYSE-listed company and Mike Wallace took their fine medals to a pawn shop to see what he could get for them. "Just throw them in the bucket," said the pawn shop owner. "We melt them down for scrap value." Always wondered if Mike didn't bring the bucket with him.

Like always it is a matter of buying value rather than what's hot I think. At least that's my opinion.

Everybody knows the stories of huge finds of valuable antiques at a flea market but I doubt many have heard of a $40 junk lot at a high-class New York auction house that yielded an old master painting that was later valued at millions of dollars.

Been a dump picker all my life, jagman, with the usual character flaws. As a dealer I had to have turnover. Bad habits die hard. As an investor I usually failed to hang onto a good thing. I can talk the talk but failed to walk the walk.

Best, Terry