As my wife runs a drop shipping business, I was pretty excited to see that Doba offers a huge array of products – more than 250,000 of them – including a number of products that complement items we are currently selling.

Doba offers a 7 day free trial, but the reason we signed up for it was because their web site said they carry one specific product that we needed ASAP. One of our good international customers asked us if he could order that particular item in quantity, but the manufacturer has not been responsive or easy to work with. So Doba seemed like a good option.

Here are some comments based on our experience trying the service:

1. There is no way to sign up for the cheap membership option as advertised. The web site says there are two monthly membership options, either $29.95 or $39.90. But when you sign up for the free trial the fine print says you will be billed $39 per month and does not offer any other option. Even after you sign up there is no way to choose the $29 monthly option (aside from maybe calling them on the phone), but you can upgrade to an annual membership. It seems like false advertising to me – is as if they intentionally omitted that option from the web site even though it is listed on their membership options page.

2. Doba’s prices are often more expensive than you can find elsewhere. Since Doba buys in bulk, we expected that they would have good pricing. But in many cases, we could get a better price if we just took Doba out of the equation and bought the items elsewhere. Some of the items are actually cheaper if you buy them from Amazon.com – and Amazon includes free shipping and does not charge a drop shipping fee. For example, one product we were interested in is being sold for $39.95 on Amazon with free shipping whereas Doba charges $55.52 when you add in their drop shipping fees and the cost of shipping. In another case, the manufacturer was selling the product directly to the public for $29.95, but Doba’s pricing was $38 plus shipping and delivery fees.

There are some products we found that have potential. It will probably take a week or more for anyone to sift through all of the products they are interested in and find the few gems that they can actually work with.

3. Many of the products in Doba’s inventory are either out of stock or only available in limited quantity. Virtually every item we were interested in had less than 10 units in stock. This is no good for any eBay seller that wants to avoid getting negative feedback when someone buys a product that suddenly becomes out of stock.

Doba even carries iPods, but when I checked every single iPod was out of stock! (Check out this screen shot.)

The whole purpose of a drop shipping company is for them to maintain the merchandise inventory so you don’t have to. If they can’t keep the items in stock, you can’t fulfill orders when you get them. So what’s the point?

For the record, this is a common problem when working with companies that do drop shipping and so Doba is not unique in this regard. But they are the only drop shipping company we have worked with that charges a monthly fee and drop shipping fees.

I would like to point out that this is another thing that is kind of hit or miss with Doba. The smaller the item, size wise, the more units they seem to have in inventory. Some items literally had more than 3,000 units in inventory, whereas some of the items we were looking at had less than ten. It seems like they bought their inventory based on dividing up warehouse space instead of anticipating demand and planning accordingly.

4. Some items are listed on their web site more than once, with different SKU numbers, prices, and MSRPs. I suspect this is because since Doba uses different suppliers they have included all of the merchandise from each even though the data is different. In one case, a particular product was available at two different prices (about 5% price difference), but the suggested retail price for one was $299 whereas the other was $411.

5. Doba carries popular items like iPods, but in addition to being completely out of stock, it costs more to buy it from Doba than from Apple directly. For example, Doba charges $304.59 as a wholesale price for the 30 Gb iPod and claims the retail price is $746, but Apple is selling it on their web site for $249 right now! Apple sells the 4 GB iPod Nano for $199, whereas Doba’s “wholesale” price is $287 and they claim the MSRP is $451.25. Ridiculous.

The bottom line: Doba is a great idea in theory, but its not so hot in practice – yet. With the monthly subscription fee and additional drop shipping fees, we’re not sure if it would really pay for itself unless you find some real gems amongst the hundreds of thousands of products that they do carry. Especially since many of their prices are not competitive. What they need to do is go to manufacturers directly and negotiate lower prices since they will be buying in bulk.

If you think Doba will let you open up shop and buy popular electronics at wholesale I’m afraid you are mistaken. That kind of market is very price competitive and Doba just can’t compete.

All in all we have decided to not use Doba, at least for now. If they had the one product we wanted to buy ASAP – the one our overseas customer is asking us for – then we definitely would have. That product was advertised on their web site before we signed up, but once registered we learned that it was out of stock!

Doba might work for you. But we are going to pass.

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Doba Review (Drop Shipping Service)

I like to read books about business, investing, and growing wealth, and I like to read books by people that have firsthand experience in this area. When I originally heard about this book (and asked that the publisher send me a copy) it was because I was under the impression that this book fit within my criteria.

I am confident that Stuart Lucas’ book contains many gems of wisdom when it comes to wealth and asset management. Unfortunately, many of his gems don’t really apply to me. You see, Stuart Lucas inherited most of his money, and the book was written from the perspective of someone that is trying to manage a huge fortune vice someone that has successfully built their own.

The book starts off with a quote that alienated me right away: “What is the best way to make a small fortune? Start with a big one.”

In that sense, this book is really written for someone like Paris Hilton more than it is written for me. (Although I really don’t think that Paris Hilton would ever be able to make it through this book unless her trust fund was on the line.)

Stuart Lucas’ book has received glowing reviews on Amazon, and was mentioned in both Publishers Weekly and Newsweek. Even the folks at Publishers Weekly acknowledged that “the subject is dry”, which allows me to not feel as bad with what I have to say about the book:

I tried to read it. I really did. But to be honest this book is a pretty tough read. I really wanted to like it. I really wanted to walk away with some gems of wisdom. But, to date, I have not gotten much out of this book that is both new to me and applicable to me. Not yet, at least. (I plan on keeping this book on my shelf with the hope that some day it might be more applicable to either myself or my heirs.)

If you happen to be someone that has inherited a large sum of money, I would recommend looking for Wealth: Grow It, Protect It, Spend It, and Share It at your local bookstore or library. Mr. Lucas’ book will help you with big picture planning and give you plenty of food for thought.

But if your goal is to make your first million (vice inherit it), I would advise you to steer clear of this book.

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A Few Thoughts About “Wealth” by Stuart Lucas

The key to achieving that financial freedom, based on what I have learned so far, is to make your money work hard so you don’t have to. This means buying assets that generate cash flow, and growing your net worth through passive streams of income.

One excellent way to generate passive streams of income is by investing in real estate. This is because land – and especially land in desirable locations – is truly a limited commodity. Governments can print as much money as they want, and companies can issue more shares of stock, but no one can print more land. It is a finite resource.

The Real Estate Coach offers a window into the coaching experience of fictional couple Brian and Sarah. Like many Americans, Brian and Sarah were overextended financially and missing the big picture. They were in a downward spiral, and with the assistance of a friend found a mentor (”the Coach”) that taught them about real estate and got them started.

About Bradley Sugars

Bradley J. Sugars is an Australian multimillionaire. He has written The Business Coach, Billionaires In Training, Successful Franchising, and a number of other books of that genre – 13 in total.

Mr. Sugars happens to be the founder of global coaching firm Action International. He is a business coach who has helped nearly a million clients around the world find business success.

Learning The Ropes

According to the Coach, real estate investing is “not about windows, floors, or bathrooms, but numbers.”

The idea is timeless: to buy property for less than it is worth – i.e. at a discount to its intrinsic value. Then, you increase the property’s value by making meaningful renovations and raising rents accordingly.

The Coach emphasizes sound principles, and many of them hold true for any kind of investing. He says that profit is made when you buy, not when you sell, and that risk comes from a lack of knowledge about what you’re doing. This is why he stresses the need to research your local real estate market.

For newbies this means looking at dozens of properties to get a feel for market values – and be able to recognize a good deal when you see one. The coach recommends that new investors visit fifty (50) properties, putting an offer in on a handful, and obtaining financing for just one.

Making Your Rules

One key point that Sugars stresses again and again in the book is the need to determine your own personal financial goals. Before you even invest a cent, he says you must know what you are trying to achieve so you know which investments will work for you.

You need to know where you are financially, and where you want to go, to build your set of investing rules. Your rules will get you where you want to go. But, in order to do that, they must be your rules.

Real estate can become a very emotional game, and that’s precisely why Sugars emphasizes the need for rules. A property investor must ignore their personal feelings when reviewing potential investments because they will not actually be living at the property. They must instead focus on the best features to add to increase value and desirability for tenants.

According to the Coach, “Stick to your rules, and you will never go wrong. You won’t be blinded by a great deal that comes your way that doesn’t quite fit with what you’re after.”

For example, you cannot invest in something just because someone else is doing it. In order for it to be right for you, it must fit in with your master plan as dictated by your rules. According to the Coach, “It’s quite often that people ask me what they should invest in and my only recommendation is for them to get more knowledge so they don’t have to ask such a question.”

Building Your Portfolio

Sugars stresses the importance of building a real estate portfolio with balanced cash flow. Through the Coach, he introduces a concept he calls a “wealth wheel”, which consists of quick cash deals, positive cash flow investments, and negatively geared capital growth properties.

This is necessary because not every property produces enough income from tenants to cover its mortgage. Ironically, it is often the more expensive properties that produce the great long-term capital growth but do not produce enough cash on a day to day basis to sustain themselves.

The “wealth wheel” concept allows investors to manage cash flow needs and, most importantly, allows for enough cash to make all of the mortgage payments. This is because the income from positive cash flow properties enables an investor to cover the cost of other properties which have higher growth potential but less rental income.

To encourage capital growth, Sugars advises to renovate each property after purchasing and get new assessments afterward. As the property’s assessed value grows, so does the owner’s equity in the property. “The Coach” recommends refinancing whenever possible, and at least every five years, to cash out all available equity to use for future investments.

The Review

I learned a lot from this book. A ton. Your results may vary, of course, but I can’t imagine that someone could read The Real Estate Coach and not learn something. It is a very good book.

The style of this book is different from most others because it is written as a story of two people that visit “The Coach”. Though I prefer other writing styles, Sugars shares many real estate tips through “The Coach”. Clearly, this guy has a lot of experience when it comes to real estate investing.

The book can provide you with a big picture perspective and a way ahead to building your wealth through real estate. It is general enough that the information within applies to virtually every real estate market in the world. But if you have questions about specific tax or legal issues pertaining to your state or local area, this book will not give you the answers.

This is no “get rich quick” scheme here. Like pretty much anything else in life, it will take time and hard work to build a real estate portfolio worth owning.

But, as the Coach says, “Rich people do what poor people aren’t willing to, and if you want the rewards, my friend, you have to do the work.”

Even if you know nothing about real estate investing – and that was me – you can’t go wrong starting off with The Real Estate Coach. I enjoyed reading it.

To Learn More:

• Amazon.com: The Real Estate Coach

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Learning From The Real Estate Coach

But how should they get started? It’s a tough question to tackle. When I’m asked, I always want to point the person towards one of Benjamin Graham’s books so they can learn the tried and true investing principles that I have been studying. But I’ve never been able to do it because the odds would be stacked against them from the start.

You see, the principles of value investing, while publicly available for the last 50 years, are just not easy to learn. Benjamin Graham was a brilliant man, but his writing can be difficult to understand. Asking a new investor to read one of his books and understand it is like throwing them into a pool with sharks.

Phil Town has done a brilliant job of digesting the principles of how to find a wonderful investment. He presents the essence of this wisdom, along with lessons he learned along the way, in the form of real world applications and examples that you will understand. His book, which will be in stores on March 21, is called Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week!

About Phil Town

After serving his country as an elite soldier (Green Beret), Phil had a variety of odd jobs, including one as a river raft tour guide in the Grand Canyon. In 1980, he did an Outward Bound rafting tour and his group was nearly killed. It was Phil’s courage under pressure – and everyone paddling because their lives depended on it – that saved them.

One of the rafters (”the Wolf”) taught Phil how to invest as repayment for saving his life. And the rest, as they say, is history.

Phil Town is a great American, and a rags-to-riches success story. I mean, I’m a veteran too, but I have never been shot at in the line of duty. My shipmates would agree – our hats go off to men like him.

From the eyes of this veteran, what Phil Town has done is truly the American dream. And since he’s showing me the keys to his success via his book and his blog, I’m trying to learn everything I can!

The Rule

The Rule – “Rule #1″ – is to not lose money. It is the time-tested principle that an intelligent investor can buy one dollar of asset value for fifty cents of actual cash. In doing so, you are buying assets for less than they are actually worth. These “assets” are companies via shares of stock, but we treat it like we own the whole thing.

Rule #1 was invented by Benjamin Graham – an investing legend, former Columbia University professor, and Warren Buffett’s mentor. The concept sounds easy enough, but figuring out the “worth” part is more than a “little” tricky.

An investment is only a potential value if you can buy it significantly below Sticker Price. If you know what it is worth, and you can buy it for substantially less, you are getting a good value for your money. That’s Rule #1.

Warren Buffett and Benjamin Graham often refer to the idea of buying a company’s shares below their “intrinsic value”. But you can’t just find that number on the internet, and you could spin your wheels for years trying to figure out this kind of stuff.

Phil makes it easy to learn. In Rule #1, Phil talks you through how to pick wonderful companies and determine their Sticker Price in “baby steps” that even the newest investor can take. He offers plenty of thumb rules in the book and calculators on his web site to help you figure things out.

You Know More Than You Think

To choose the right investment for you, Rule #1 uses criteria called the Four M’s. They are Meaning, Moat, Management, and Margin of Safety.

All of us know a lot more about businesses than we give ourselves credit for. One of the world’s greatest investors, Peter Lynch, once said, “Buying what you know about is a very sophisticated strategy that many professionals have neglected to put into practice.”

To me, one of the most striking parts of this book is Phil’s emphasis that an investment should have meaning to you. As Phil says, “the first M means its personal.” He says that the companies we own make a statement about what we stand for. Our ethics and our values as citizens and people are mirrored in the enterprises and business leaders we support.

When a company has meaning to you, it has created a brand that has impacted you in an area that you are knowledgeable or passionate about. And it has a better chance of possessing the characteristics of a Rule #1 investment.

What normally happens, though, is the Pharmacist buys technology companies and the car dealer buys biotech companies, while each ignores the professional insights they have into their own industry. That’s throwing away valuable information – and a violation of Rule #1.

Watching The Big Money

When shares drop to below the Margin of Safety price, Rule #1 shows you how to use technical indication Tools to keep an eye on the flow of institutional money. In the book, Phil says, “Believe me, they are always going to know a lot more about what’s going on and how that will impact your business than you or I ever will. So, once you’ve picked your biz, watch what the big guys do with buying and selling your stock.”

I believe him.

Large mutual funds and institutional investors move billions of dollars into and out of stocks each day. However, they own millions of shares and can only sell a few thousand here and there. It takes them several weeks to buy all the way in or sell all the way out.

That creates opportunities. A more agile individual investor, such as you or I, can watch the flow of institutional money and take advantage of price peaks and valleys. We can buy our shares one day and sell them the next. That’s an edge.

I had previously shunned the idea of using this sort of technical analysis because Buffett and Graham did not favor it. However, Phil convinced me right away when he said, “When you’ve been through as big a drop as we went through in 2000-2003 and didn’t lose any money while everyone else was getting slaughtered, you become a believer.”

I’m willing to give it a shot. In fact, it didn’t take long before I found a recent post on Phil’s blog where he showed yet another example of the power of these technical indicator Tools. In Getting Out of GOOG: A Reminder Why The Arrows Matter, Phil shares his very recent personal experience of why he sold his Google shares at about $440 and got out before it dropped. (It now hovers around $350.)

The concept of looking at who’s buying and who’s selling has been around for decades too. While Phil’s Tools do not actually delve into ticker tape analysis, if the net result is the same – i.e. Phil selling Google at $440 while it sits today at $350 – do you think that this millionaire is on to something?

Information may be power, but knowing when to act decisively can be explosive. I look forward to gaining personal experience with the Tools.

15 Minutes Each Week?

You might see the subtitle of this book and wonder if Rule #1 investing will really take you less than exactly 15.00000000 minutes per week, or whether you might actually have to spend a few more minutes now and again.

If this was your first concern, you would miss out on the big picture.

The first part of Rule #1 investing requires you to put together a list of wonderful businesses you’d like to own, and do some background research on them. Though it will almost certainly take you more than 15 minutes, it does not take that long, and Phil shows excellent examples of how to do Rule #1 analysis throughout the book.

Just because a company is worth owning does not mean you’ll be able to buy their shares at a discount right away. Since your research is done, you just need to spend about one minute per day checking up on things. According to Phil, “What you might find is that they’re wonderful and not so cheap. Put them on a Watch List, update their sticker prices about four times a year, and if they become cheap, buy them then.”

The Review

In Rule #1, Phil Town provides the caliper of wisdom that I’d always hoped to get from the millionaire uncle I never had. These are tried and true, street-hardened tips from a man that lives and breathes the American dream every day.

With this book and access to the internet, someone that has never invested a dime can learn how to make their money work for a brighter future. The techniques Phil presents cover all of the bases of buying and selling wonderful companies, and he provides all of the tools, tips and tables you’ll need to figure things out. He even tells you how to get the data you need from free sources.

I can honestly say that you will learn something from this book. I did.

To Learn More:

• Amazon.com: Rule #1: The Simple Strategy for Successful Investing in Only 15 Minutes a Week!
• Visit Rule1Investor.com – be sure to check out this site!

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Rule #1: Buy This Book

Now, Reuters is reporting that the Learning Annex is paying Donald Trump a record amount – $1.5 million per one-hour talk, plus expenses.

You can buy used copies of Donald Trump’s books for as little as fifty cents. And, if you can’t spare that change, you can get most of them for free from your public library.

So, should you spend hundreds of your hard-earned dollars – and a whole weekend – to attend the Real Estate Wealth Expo? One Wealth Junkie reader, webjanet, doesn’t think so. This is her review:

I just had the fortune of attending the Learning Annex REAL ESTATE WEALTH EXPO.

First of all, the seminars were little more than a series of infomercials for the speakers personal books and “business systems” – most costing $1,000 or more. (They might cost $2,500 but they would tell you the Learning Annex made them give a deal!)

They also refused to tell you when Donald Trump, Robert Kiyosaki or any of the other speakers were appearing until you got there on Saturday because of “scheduling and security concerns” and yet they had 50,000 schedule books miraculously printed and ready to hand out at 8am on Saturday when they told you to be there. And you find out the Trump does not appear until 6:30pm Sunday and Kiyosaki on Saturday morning.

They purposely try to keep you there, because once you have been to 1 or 2 “seminars” you realize you wasted your money, your time, your gas, the parking fee, because you could have learned as much in your local library.

I was terribly disappointed! I actually hoped to LEARN something. I didn’t expect to get rich, but as a new real estate investor, I wanted to learn SOMETHING. Anything.

Obviously I was a big sap, like all the other lemmings. But I would never trust Trump, or the Learning Annex again.

Have you attended the Real Estate Wealth Expo? Tell us what you think!

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Should You Waste Your Money On The Learning Annex Real Estate Wealth Expo? One Reader Says: No Way!

There are many online brokers to choose from, it is something that affects you every day.

You should definitely take the time to pick a broker that has the features you want. For example:

1. How much human interaction do you need? Can you do all of the trades on your own?
2. How much are you willing to pay for a stock trade? (Ameritrade iZone charges $5 per internet trade, but some other brokers charge a lot more.)
3. Do you need access to pink sheet stocks? (Ameritrade iZone lets me buy pink sheet stocks, but not all brokerages do.)
4. What is the minimum you can invest? (To open an Ameritrade iZone account, you need to invest at least $5,000.)

How I Found Ameritrade iZone

The first stock broker I ever used was Datek Online. The company no longer exists– it was acquired by Ameritrade in 2002.

My Datek account was converted to an Ameritrade account. I didn’t do much stock investing then. But the following year, a family member mentioned Ameritrade’s Freetrade service.

Freetrade was a service of Ameritrade– a hidden service, of sorts. It was a free online stock broker. Anyone with a Freetrade account got 20 free stock trades per month.

Freetrade was great. I absolutely loved it. I wrote these articles about Freetrade, the predecessor to Ameritrade iZone:

1. My Broker Pays Me $2000 Each Year. A brief discussion of Ameritrade’s service.
2. My Broker Gets Even. Almost as if I had created bad karma from my last article, Freetrade then announced it would be shutting down. All Freetrade accounts would be converted to Ameritrade iZone at the end of April 2005.
3. Goodbye, Freetrade. My Freetrade account was converted to Ameritrade iZone. Freetrade was no longer. As of this article, the cheapest discount stock broker I know of is Ameritrade iZone.

I have been using Ameritrade iZone for nearly six months now.

Ameritrade iZone – My Review

I have been trading stocks online for over three years. I used to use Freetrade, but have been using Ameritrade iZone to trade stocks online since April 30, 2005.

I currently use Ameritrade iZone as my online discount stock broker. In general, I am quite happy with the service.

Ameritrade iZone isn’t as cheap as Freetrade used to be. Stock trades are $5 (plus SEC fees of a few cents here and there). And options trades cost $5 plus $0.75 per contract.

However, I am personally finding that Ameritrade iZone’s service is quite fast. iZone executes trades quickly and Ameritrade seems to give me the best prices. I have not had any personal problems with trade execution price or speed as long as I have held an Ameritrade iZone account.

Ameritrade iZone Web Site

Ameritrade iZone’s web site looks great and is a lot more user friendly than Freetrade’s site used to be.

Each option on the upper left side of the screen– i.e. “Trade”, “Portfolio”, “Streamer Suite”, “Research”, and “Account”– are all pull-down menus with multiple options.

Clicking on “Trade”, for example, brings four options– “Stocks”, “Options”, “Mutual Funds”, and “Order Status”.

Getting Started with Ameritrade iZone

Ameritrade iZone requires a $5,000 minimum to open an account. You can transfer this money either by bank wire or by asset transfer if you happen to already have a different Ameritrade account.

In my case, I had some money in an Ameritrade account and sent the rest by bank wire to get over the minimum amount.

Once your Ameritrade iZone account is activated, you can make deposits by bank wire or ACH electronic transfer from a checking account.

Ameritrade iZone credits ACH deposits immediately but puts a five business day hold on these deposits. They will not let you use your deposits to buy pink sheet stocks or non-marginable securities until the hold is cleared.

The Ameritrade iZone web site is fast. Not only do you get free real-time quotes (you can get the latest data using the quote box at the bottom of the page), but you can trade stocks very quickly if you want to. It takes just a few seconds to enter the data and submit a trade.

Ameritrade iZone vs. Scottrade

I don’t like paying $5 per trade when I used to get them for free– the fees can add up very quickly, especially if you trade a lot.

But since I didn’t really have a choice when they shut down Freetrade, Ameritrade iZone is the best online broker for me right now.

I have been considering switching to Scottrade mainly because they offer “trailing stops”– a service that lets you minimize risk. But I haven’t needed that service yet and Ameritrade iZone fits my needs so far.

Also, Scottrade costs $7 per trade. Ameritrade iZone costs $5.

Ameritrade iZone is not perfect, however. There are a few things you just can’t buy with your Ameritrade iZone account– like bonds, currencies, or commodities.

Aside from that, I would recommend Ameritrade iZone to anyone that has experience trading stocks online. If you are happy to do your trades and do most of your customer support and questions by e-mail, Ameritrade iZone is for you.

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Ameritrade iZone Review

Please note: GorillaTrades is a registered trademark of GorillaTrades, Inc. Neither WealthJunkies.com, its publisher, nor the authors of these articles have any affiliation with the GorillaTrades service.

1. Should I Hire A Stock Picking Gorilla? My first thoughts about stock picking services, and some details about a few that I will be trying out.
2. First Impressions: GorillaTrades This article discusses my first impressions with Gorilla Trades, their interface, and their terms of service.

Trading with GorillaTrades is like betting on a horse race based on what you overhear on the subway. Yes, you might win. But there is little logic to it.
–from “The Logic of GorillaTrades“

3. The GorillaTrades Daily E-Mail. A breakdown of the e-mail that Gorilla Trades sends to its readers each day.
4. The Gorilla’s Secret Recipe.Some details on how Gorilla Trades picks their stocks. In my opinion: too much hocus pocus. Not enough fundamentals.
5. The Logic of GorillaTrades. My two cents on how Gorilla Trades provides stock market advice. (Some people might not like this post. But I can’t please everyone.)
6. My Split Personalities. My wife and I just made a big move and have a lot on our plate. This is a bit of my own thoughts on the stock market and Gorilla Trades.

Our man would love to find an easy way out. He would love to snuggle up to a service like GorillaTrades.com, and let them take him to fame and fortune. It may work. But how can he trust them?
-from “My Split Personalities“

7. A Moment For Clarity. The last post resulted in an 868-word hate mail. It came as a bit of a surprise for me, so this post explains a bit more of my thoughts on Gorilla Trades.
8. Clearing the Air. Further thoughts on Gorilla Trades, as I try to lightheartedly clear up some things relating to that hate mail I mentioned before.
9. The Gorilla Just Won’t Quit. This article discusses how, after cancelling my trial subscription, Gorilla Trades sent me more than 25 unsolicited e-mail messages between May 21st and July 3rd. And since I was able to read Andrew Feinberg’s “Just Monkeying Around” article while visiting a Connecticut library, I discuss how Gorilla Trades is misleading you in their advertising– because Andrew Feinberg actually hated Gorilla Trades.
10. The Gorilla Special. When you cancel your free trial of Gorilla Trades, the Gorilla will send you tons of unsolicited e-mails. And offer you a way to save $100 off one year’s subscription to Gorilla Trades. This message is a sample.
11. Read Today’s GorillaTrades E-Mail For Free. What can I say? My trial ended. But they kept sending me e-mails– pretty much daily, and nearly 30 in total. This post was my spam killer. It squashed the Gorilla from my mailbox. And if you want to know what GorillaTrades is like, you should definitely read this e-mail.

King’s Island: The Gorilla’s second favorite park. He still remembers the episode where the Brady Bunch visited this park!
-from Read Today’s GorillaTrades E-Mail For Free.

12. Investment Techniques at Illiterate Withdrawal. Scott at Illiterate Withdrawal mentioned that they’ve got a section discussing Gorilla Trades and other investment techniques. There is a good discussion with a wide range of opinions on the service. Definitely worth reading if you are interested in it.
13. Get The Gorilla Trades E-Mail Anytime. GorillaTrades has a page (right here) that will send you their current stock picks e-mail.

I have not come across any other blog posts about Gorilla Trades, but I can’t say I have looked everywhere. So if any of you happen to see or write on the topic of Gorilla Trades, please pass the link my way so I can add it to this list.

Note: Neither this web site, nor its author, nor its publisher are affiliated with Gorilla Trades or any other stock-picking service.

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The Gorilla Trades Page

I signed up for the GorillaTrades service yesterday. I have quite a bit to read right now. But first, I would like to comment on their terms of service.

Although they sell it as a mindless service – i.e. do what they say, and you will get rich – GorillaTrades has the same obligatory legal disclaimers that every web site (including this one) features. We are a bunch of amateur investors, and you are not paying a cent to read this web site. But GorillaTrades, on the other hand, charges $599 per year. Certainly they would stand by it – a money-back guarantee, perhaps?

Not at all.

The material provided on our Site is for general informational purposes only. No information on the Site is intended as investment, tax, accounting or legal advice, as an offer or solicitation of an offer to sell or buy, or as an endorsement, recommendation or sponsorship of any company, security, or fund. The information on the Site should not be relied upon for purposes of transacting securities or other investments. We cannot and do not assess or guarantee the suitability or profitability of any particular investment, or the potential value of any investment or informational source. You bear responsibility for your own investment research and decisions, and should seek the advice of a qualified securities professional before making any investment.
–from Terms of Service, GorillaTrades.com

While you can try the service for 30 days, you should be careful. Because if you are late, they will charge you the full $599 and you will have no chance of getting it back. No pro-rated refunds.

Cancellation. You may cancel your subscription to GorillaTrades by notifying our Billing Department via electronic mail at billing@gorillatrades.com. Cancellation will take effect no later than 3 business days after we receive your notification. There are no refunds on subscriptions. Any delinquent or unpaid amounts must be paid in full before you may re-subscribe.
–from Terms of Service, GorillaTrades.com

But wait, there is more. My favorite part of their terms and conditions discusses how many copies of their materials you may print. The answer: just one.

You may only access and use the materials on the Site, and download and/or print out only one copy of any materials on the Site, solely for your personal use.
–from Terms of Service, GorillaTrades.com

I realize they are trying to prevent people from bringing copies to their whole office, but I think they got a bit carried away. What about a copy at my home and one at my office? What if I just want to save it as a PDF on my computer?

The regular GorillaTrades site is loaded with unnecessary flash that, while “flashy”, does not make me money. Some pages, such as the web version (as opposed to the Excel version) of the Current Gorilla Trades Portfolio did not display properly in my browser window (Mozilla Firefox). It did, however, display properly in Internet Explorer.

There’s more to come on this topic.

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First Impressions: GorillaTrades

“How to Get Rich” is written just like Trump speaks: terse, pointed, and direct. His succinct words get to the meat of any topic. Having watched “The Apprentice” and read his other books, I can imagine him actually saying the words as they are written; I think he dictated the whole book.

The first chapters of the book offer very solid business lessons. Topics in “The Donald J. Trump School of Business and Management” include “Stay Focused”, “Get a Great Assistant”, and “Think Big and Live Large.”

Business Rule #1: If you don’t tell people about your success, they probably won’t know about it.
–Donald Trump, in “How to Get Rich”

Other major sections include “Your Personal Apprenticeship (Career Advice from The Donald)”, “Money, Money, Money, Money”, “The Secrets of Negotiation”, “The Trump Lifestyle”, and “Inside The Apprentice.”

The chapter on “The Art of the Hair”, while amusing, wasn’t quite necessary. As Trump put it, Random House was paying him “a fortune” and they insisted on it. (Incidentally, it is real, dyed, and yes, he would wear a piece if he had to.)

Everyone has an opinion. In most cases, it’s not worth the paper it’s written on.
–Donald Trump, in “How to Get Rich”

I’ve been a fan of Donald Trump for nearly twenty years. So, of course, I liked this book. “How to Get Rich” is the essence of many lessons from “The Apprentice” distilled into a text that I could read in a few hours, with some interesting insights into Trump’s mind.

But this is not a text book. Donald discusses everything from job interviews to handshakes. The chapter titled “A Week In The Life”, for example, offers a walkthrough of The Donald’s schedule, his projects, the guests that pop-in, and his thoughts. This offers much insight into his thought process, but his discussion of buying inexpensive versus higher priced, higher quality suits actually put off a friend who borrowed my copy.

Whether or not you are a fan of “The Donald”, I think you can learn something from “How to Get Rich”. It is a “must read” for Apprentice fans, and I highly recommend it for anyone that wants insight into the mind of a billionaire.

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“How To Get Rich” by Donald Trump