The Worst Deal I Ever Made Trivia Quiz

Answer: Apple Computer Company

Although Ronald Wayne was instrumental in setting up the Apple Computer Company (now known as "Apple Inc"), his aversion to the potential personal risks to him that were associated with the company's debts meant that he quickly exited the partnership with Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak. At the time of sale, US$ 1,500 in a fledgling company may have been a fair price, but with a revenue of around US$ 265.6 billion by 2018, a 10% stake in Apple Inc has become exponentially more valuable over time.

Wayne also made a bad deal again in the 1990s when he sold the original partnership contract between himself, Jobs and Wozniak for US$ 500. In 2011, the contract was sold on for US$ 1.6 million.

Answer: GeoCities

Geocities was a web hosting service that enabled user-published websites to be hosted within online "neighborhoods" or "cities". The service included a marketplace website and users were able to cash in points made from their hosted websites for use in the online store.

The public unpopularity of Yahoo!'s acquisition of GeoCities was a key factor in its downfall and new terms of service meant that many users quit fairly soon after the sale. Despite the launch of certain premium paid-for services, Geocities did not turn a profit and was eventually abandoned and discontinued by Yahoo! in 2009.

Answer: She lived another 32 years

Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment lived to the ripe old age of 122 and became the world's oldest living person at that time, much to the probable dismay of Andre-Francois Raffray, who was forced to make over US$ 180,000 in aggregate payments to her, which equated to roughly double the value of the apartment he would eventually inherit.

Even worse, Jeanne Calment actually outlived Andre-Francois Raffray, who died in 1995 at the age of 77 when Jeanne was 120.

Answer: Alaska

Though settled by a small number of Russians in the early 18th century, by the 19th century, Alaska was hardly populated and Tsar Alexander II decided that its location and climate made it too difficult to defend from Russia's enemies in any event.

Hoping to expand the US's trade capacity with Asia, US Secretary of State William Seward led the USA's negotiations to purchase Alaska and eventually acquired the territory for the USA in 1867. Many Americans considered the purchase to be overly expensive and considered Alaska to be a useless land grab, labelling the purchase "Seward's Folly".

Luckily, Seward was proven right in the end as the Klondike Gold Rush at the end of the 19th century led to significant population increases and the discovery of significant and valuable natural resources there.

By the 1980s, it had been estimated by Stanford University experts that Alaska's oil and gas reserves alone were worth around US$ 200 billion and more recently discoveries of copper, gold and molybdenum have been estimated by experts to be worth around US$ 300 million.

Answer: 20th Century Fox Studios

George Lucas' directorial fee for the first "Star Wars" movie was set to be around US$ 500,000. However, Fox was concerned that the "western set in space" might not be much of a hit and instead offered him a US$ 150,000 salary plus all merchandising rights and the rights to any sequels.

Merchandising in the 1970s was not a particularly lucrative business, and Fox's lack of faith in "Star Wars" as a concept meant that they were not expecting much in the way of sequels. However, on its release in 1977, "Star Wars" (later retroactively titled "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope") was a huge hit. More than US$ 100 million worth of toys were sold between 1977 and 1978 alone and continue to be sold to this day and the next five "Star Wars" movies grossed around US$ 3.5 billion at the box office.

In 2012, Disney bought the entire franchise from George Lucas for US$ 4 billion.

Answer: Manhattan Island

Minuit was a Belgian working for the Dutch Empire. He sought to purchase the land now known as Manhattan Island from the Lenape nation. The Lenape nation did not actually vacate the land for another 40 years and it is arguable that the Lenape nation did not realize that the Dutch would claim the land as their own - rather, they may have simply been engaging in a form of gift-giving which they had intended would result only in the formation of a European colony on leased land, or that they were providing only the right to hunt on and pass through the land. However, the Dutch quickly colonised the island as their own and founded New Amsterdam (later to become known as New York).

Today, Manahattan property prices are some of the most expensive in the world and the city of New York is a thriving financial center with huge value.

Answer: Boston Red Sox

In 1919, after playing six seasons for the Red Sox and winning three World Series with them, Babe Ruth was unhappy with his US$ 10,000 a year salary and demanded that it be raised. The owner of the Red Sox at that time, Harry Frazee, was facing financial difficulties and decided to sell Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees for a combination of cash and loans.

Frazee used the loans he received to finance the musical "My Lady Friends" on Broadway. While Ruth went on to lead the Yankees to four World Series and seven American League victories, the Boston Red Sox embarked on an 86-year championship drought that has been called "The Curse of the Bambino" after Ruth's nickname "The Bambino". The drought was only broken in 2004 when the Red Sox won the World Series.

Answer: Brazil

The line of demarcation was drawn based on leagues from the Portuguese Cape Verde Islands (just off the African coast) and as a result of a lack of understanding of the geography of the Americas, and certain ambiguity as to actual distances, the Treaty of Tordesillas effectively provided Portugal with a portion of the then uninhabitable, rainforest-covered Brazil, and Spain with everything to the west of that, including what is now the US, Mexico and the western part of South America.

After 300 years of disputes, the First Treaty of San Ildefonso, signed in 1777, was slated to clarify the situation. However, this proved to be another poor deal for Portugal, who ended up ceding what is now Uruguay in exchange for the Amazon Basin.

Answer: Rupert Murdoch

In 2005, when News Corporation acquired MySpace, it was one of the internet's leading websites and its value tripled within a year of the sale. However, by 2008, Facebook has taken over in popularity and MySpace was losing members. It is unclear what caused this downturn but many people consider that a three year exclusive advertising deal with Google was a key factor as it led to heavily advertised space and made the site run slowly.

By 2011, MySpace's value had significantly reduced as its membership dwindled and it was sold to Specific Media for far less than the US$ 580 million paid for it in 2005.

Answer: 2 large pizzas

In 2010, via an online forum, a man named Laszlo Hanyecz from Florida offered a stranger 10,000 bitcoins if they would buy him two large pizzas. The internet stranger ordered two Papa John's pizzas at a cost of just US$ 25 and Hanyecz paid them 10,000 bitcoins.

It was a poor deal at the time, as the value of the bitcoins was US$ 41, but it was an even poorer deal in the long term as bitcoin prices soared. By 2019, on the ten year anniversary of what became known as "Bitcoin Pizza Day", the same number of bitcoins was worth around US$ 80 million.