You'll love this....

O.K.

I know regular readers of this blog will appreciate the irony of this.

I just invested in Barnes and Noble stock.

I did this because of my instincts as a retailer. I think they have a synergistic thing going, what with the Nook and books and toys and games. Meanwhile, their competitor, Borders, is all but toast.

What's going to happen, I think, is the overall prevailing thinking will be that bookstores are dinosaurs. And yet, in the short run, their sales are going to be good, which will eventually break down the resistance to their stock; either because people think that books have a chance, or -- almost in reverse -- because they think Nook is going to take over the world.

It's almost a no lose situation -- a classic hedge. (Just using the words "no lose" gives me the willies and probably ought to talk me out of doing this; but I don't really believe it's a "no lose". In fact, I know it's a gamble.)

In the short run, I think they are going to have a really impressive outcome.

In the long run, I'd probably be tempted to reverse course and start to 'short' them.

I can afford to do this, this once. I'm curious about whether my instincts are right. The only other time I was tempted to invest in a stock was in Marvel -- as they were emerging from bankruptcy and there were hints of a "Spider-man" movie. The upside was so huge.

But, I had no money, and I had read this investment advice which said, "Don't invest in any businesses that are in the same business as you." Because you'd get a double whammy.
Which made sense.

But later, I realized -- what business do I actually know anything about? Yep, comics and books and games and toys. Everything thing else, I'm an outsider taking the advice of insiders.

In a way, I'm applying what I've learned in my bookstore to a different playing field. When I've had these sorts of ideas in the past, I've been right more often than wrong. Sometimes I'm a little too ahead of the game -- or I make some false starts -- but eventually that all comes back and gives me plenty of time to prepare for the tipping point.

Linda let me do this -- "I'm curious, too," she said.

The stock may go down, it may go up. But I'm betting --- gambling, let's face it -- that at some point in the near future, within a couple years, they'll have a big run up. I invested what I could afford to lose.

We'll see. Adds a bit of spice to life, you know?