Sometime in the early 90’s I made my first stock purchase. I bought 10 shares of Sierra-Online. I had a hard time finding a broker who would talk to a college student that only wanted to buy a few shares. Most required a purchase of a standard lot of 100 shares, more money than I had available. (Long before eTrade and online brokage firms.)
I was finally able to obtain 10 shares of Sierra-Online that was trading at about $10/share. The commission was $10. So, I became a stockholder for the first time. $110 for 10 shares.
I never sold those shares, but due to company takeovers, the shares were traded in for other shares over the years (often with cash dividends). I have lost track of how much money was paid over the years, but I do still have shares of 3 companies that are direct descendants of Sierra. That is, I never bought these shares, they were just traded in exchange from CUC, to Cendant, to Avis/Realogy/Wyndham, … now to Avis Budget, Wyndham, and Travel+Leisure.
The 100 shares of Sierra-Online in 1990 is now 5 shares of CAR, 10 shares of WH, 10 shares of TNL.