Andy Scott
From Escondido (Car Dealer)
I’m guessing you don’t mean annually. A lot of people probably wouldn’t be comfortable answering that. But I can tell you about some stocks I made money on. I bought Las Vegas Sands back five months ago for $2 a share, when everything was in the basement, pricewise. I sold it two weeks ago at $12.50 a share and made about 5K on that.
Tonya Gonzalez
From Normal Heights (Hotel Business)
Tom Leykis, the radio talk-show host, was doing an appearance in town. Our driver didn’t want to pick him up in P.B., so I did. He and his manager were in the backseat, and I was talking to him about a show I heard the previous day. He had been saying that overweight women were the worst drivers because they’ll stop anywhere to eat. We talked the whole way there, and his manager gave me a $20 tip. When [Leykis] got out of the car, he was touching my arms in a flirty way. He’s a heavy guy, and he was all sweaty. It was creepy. But he also tipped me $20. And I ended up getting a few more tips that day. I told the driver later and he was mad.
Rebecca Arriaga
From San Diego (Clothing Company)
The clothing company I work for, well, it seems they have a lot more rules in California than the other states they’re located in. And someone in Ohio was suing, saying they didn’t get all their breaks. A lawsuit was filed and they called me up asking about my breaks. I told them I had them all. I don’t know if it’s just easier for companies to settle. I told them they didn’t owe me anything, but they called back a few weeks later saying all the employees that worked a certain time would be getting a $2000 check. They told me they’d pay me even though I was refusing it. I was contacted later by the IRS for not paying taxes on it, and I owed them $700.
Al Santiago
From Kearny Mesa (Engineer)
I don’t know, maybe the condo we sold. We made a little money on that. Oh, I got a good one — the Cash for Clunkers [government program]. We got a Kia Spectra for my daughter. We had a ’93 Isuzu Trooper my brother gave my daughter to use as a first car. It started having problems and became my car. We traded it in at the Kia dealer and got $4500. Then Kia gave us another $3500 as a rebate for the car we chose. All in all, we made $8000 on a 16-year-old car. Not a bad take.
Jeff Vroom
From Ramona (Carpenter)
I bought a mint-condition Mickey Mantle baseball card for a dollar when I was a kid. The same person I got that from…I also got a few other players from the ’60s that were all-stars — Hank Aaron and a Pete Rose rookie card that I think showed him and another player. He wanted all my Padres cards. So, he got an Ozzie Smith, Randy Jones, and Dave Winfield. I made out in the deal. I sold the collection ten years later and got around $10,000.
Steph Summers
From San Jose (Teacher)
I bought a Gordon & Smith surfboard at a garage sale for $5. I ended up using it a few times before deciding to just hang it on the wall of my garage. A few years later someone offered me $500 for it. I took it in a heartbeat. Hey, I had a credit card bill to pay off. I’m sure they’re now talking about it as the best deal they’ve ever gotten. It was in excellent condition, so I’m sure it’s worth something in the thousands.