From the hot deals archives - 1998 -1999 - If you got in on free travelzoo stock read this

[commOdog]

Ok this is so old, i can't even pull it up from the hot deals archives.

Back in 1998 -1999 during the dot com bubble free stuff days, startup Travelzoo.com gave away 2.7 million free shares to people who signed up and referred friends to their website.

CNN Article: http://www.cnn.com/TECH/computing/9807/17/freestock.idg/

At the time is was worthless and just a gimmick, or so you might think.

Well since the free giveaway, travelzoo has gone public, their stock has split twice and is now worth $38 bucks a share. stock quote

I was cleaning out my archived emails from back then and found the email that they sent me when i signed up. I went to the website and logged in to see if i still had stock and what happened to it. http://www.corporate.travelzoo.com/ir/services/

My 2 free shares have turned into 8 shares valued at $308 !!

I have started the paperwork necessary to transfer my stock to my brokerage account
<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="https://www.corporate.travelzoo.com/ir/services/certificate">https://www.corporate.travelzoo.com/ir/services/certificate</a>

If you were riding the dot com bubble back then and signed up, you might want to check it out!!

*edit* apparently in April 2002 they sent out an email about transferring free shares to normal shares (or something like that..). Anyway, if you didn't do that, and can prove you had free shares, you can request a cash payment: http://www.corporate.travelzoo.com/2002/

 

[hawksballer]

Wow that is kickin! I trade stock and I have been watching TZOO, I think they have gone up close to 100% in the past week or so because of high earnings I would have loved to get some free

 

[madogvt]

Thanks, OP. I have six shares! Found some old emails with my account # and pword.

 

[uhohs]

crap, i can't remember if i signed up for this.

 

[habib89]

too bad i have no way of proving i have those free shares... i highly doubt i have any of those emails left

 

[ECartman]

I sold my 32 shares for $90 each a year or so back when TZOO went over a hundred. Best Hot Deal I ever got in on...but I was still greedy mad that some of the dozen or so accounts I set up never got shares way back when.

 

[commOdog]

anyone else find lost shares?

 

[Karaktu]

Hey, thanks for posting this info. I know I got my free shares...just have to dig up the info now.

 

[Malignantx]

lol i didn't even know anandtech existed back then.. so no free shares for me

 

[probzy]

Nice post oP!

 

[commOdog]

anyone else? Hard to believe no one else got in on this, or hasn't been around here since 98-99........

i'm getting old.

 

[zixxer]

Originally posted by: Malignantx
lol i didn't even know anandtech existed back then.. so no free shares for me

actually anandtech was started 6 months ago when you joined - newboobie

 

[kayak4]

I just spend 2 hours looking for my TZ information on the 22 shares I had. No Luck
Tried all of my past email addys hoping to stumble on the correct one so I can get my account info but still no luck.

Anybody else having any luck?

 

[akshatp]

Dang i remember this HD way back in the day.. tried some obvious email/pw combos but cant remember which one I used...

i wish i saved old emails!

 

[FelixDeCat]

Better cash those shares soon, this puppy is headed back down to $19 a share land. What makes this thing go up is the massive short position in it. I made about $500 shorting it last year. :shocked:

 

[MechaSheeba]

Originally posted by: zixxer

Originally posted by: Malignantx
lol i didn't even know anandtech existed back then.. so no free shares for me

actually anandtech was started 6 months ago when you joined - newboobie

haha

 

[vegetation]

Hotmail erased all my old emails. Sucks.

 

[TekDemon]

Originally posted by: habib89
too bad i have no way of proving i have those free shares... i highly doubt i have any of those emails left

Actually if you can remember what your e-mail address was Travel Zoo can verify it and pay you anyway =)
So everyone who no longer has those e-mails don't fear.

Btw just so you know, you would have gotten a lot more money than the cash payment if you had made the timetable...at least that's what it seemed like based on the numbers posted at the fat place.

http://www.corporate.travelzoo.com/2002/

Now, if you can't remember what your e-mail address was you're screwed. I've forgotten some of my older e-mails by now to be honest lol

Err...if you actually cash out bigtime thanks to my post...you should mail me half! haahah

 

[commOdog]

what post at fat place

 

[RushWilliams]

Back in the day, I signed up twice & my wife once. We got 3 shares each & I consolidated all 9 shares into one account.

I now have 18 shares after a split several years back. I even remember checking out the stock prices back when it peaked at about $100 per share (late 2004). Unfortunately, being the lazy person I am, I didn't bother trying to cash in on my $1,800 worth of shares. It quickly plummeted to like $18/share.

Now, at just under $40/share I'm waiting until it peaks again (hopefully ~ $50+) then I'll take my $$ and run.

Anyone know the best/easiest way to cash out? I'm not a stock guru. I don't have a personal "broker" or any of that. All my investments go into my gov't 401K (TSP).

 

[superHARD]

Originally posted by: vegetation
Hotmail erased all my old emails. Sucks.

same here

 

[superHARD]

Found them...now to get travelzoo to honor the stocks...

 

[imported_tallgntlmn]

Wow, I remember this. I never thought anything would come of it. I just did it for giggles.

But....I used an old @Home.com email addy so the last email I had was 6 years ago. Being the pack rat that I am, I found the old emails dating from 9/99 to 5/00 and I found one with my password but nowhere in any of them is an account number and when I try that old email, they show no record of it. I would probably have emails older than 99 but I had a hard drive go down back then and I lost a lot of email data. I would have emails back to 94 if it weren't for that crash. Had some pics of some real hotties back then when chatting was safe. Believe it or not, I still have emails from the old Prodigy days dating from 94 to 96. LOL! OMG, I just realized I must be ancient in internet time. At the time I had a microchannel box with a serial port too slow for my new (at the time) 28.8 v.fast modem that cost nearly $200. ACK!! Now I feel old.

I read some of those documents on the site and I really don't know if I was part of Travelzoo Bahamas or Travelzoo Inc.

Anyone had any luck in getting them to realize that you had shares? I have emails to show I was a shareholder but I cannot retrieve any info using that email addy on their site.

Dammit, I could have used some free money. Man......

 

[sinse7en]

I signed up for this.. but it's not taking any of my emails i've ever had.. and i certainly don't have the emails from when i signed up. How the hell are you guys holding onto 8 year old emails?

Sin.

 

[ECartman]

Originally posted by: RushWilliams
Back in the day, I signed up twice & my wife once. We got 3 shares each & I consolidated all 9 shares into one account.

I now have 18 shares after a split several years back. I even remember checking out the stock prices back when it peaked at about $100 per share (late 2004). Unfortunately, being the lazy person I am, I didn't bother trying to cash in on my $1,800 worth of shares. It quickly plummeted to like $18/share.

Now, at just under $40/share I'm waiting until it peaks again (hopefully ~ $50+) then I'll take my $$ and run.

Anyone know the best/easiest way to cash out? I'm not a stock guru. I don't have a personal "broker" or any of that. All my investments go into my gov't 401K (TSP).

yeah, it isn't as hard as it might seem. I got shares for my mother-in-law, sisters, sister-in-laws, mother, wife, son, everyone I could think of back then. We sold em all in the $39-$105 per share range. You can open an account at Scottrade if you have enough shares to make it $500, or surrender the shares and enough cash to make $500, then sell them at $7 for the trade, then close the account or invest it in something else. Thats what we did. You have to contact the transfer agent for Travelzoo (info on their website) to get the actual share certificates mailed to you. At least back when I sold they couldn't transfer the shares any other way other than to mail you the actual stock certificate. You take that down to a Scottrade office (or other broker) and open an account and then sell em.