Joe Raymond
@joekraymond
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160x in a month. How I got my first two jobs and met a personal hero. Link in bio for the story.
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Awesome stuff, couldn't agree more!.
@joekraymond Great read, thanks for the shout out Joe. If i may add to it, as you know I started writing handwritten letters in a similar vein. As a result, Joe Stilwell and Greg Abel returned letters, Seth Klarman gave me a phone call, I was invited up to WCM HQ by Paul Black, and.
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30% CAGR for 22 years. Illiquid, unlisted, controlled, non-marketed. The little-known story of International Speedway. Link in bio for the case study.
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I had drinks with Charlie Munger at his house when I was 22. Thanks to a letter typed on my Smith Corona typewriter. You never know what good will come back when you "go first and go positive.".
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No better exercise IMO than looking at every stock in your investable universe. Especially if early in your career. As Alan Hathway told Robert Caro, “Turn every page. Never assume anything. Turn every goddamned page.”. Another great read from @RockwoodNotes.
Another detail I found interesting is in one of the Rockwood & Co. Moody’s manuals, it shares a page with Douglas Oil Company of California. Jay Pritzker ends up on the BoD of Douglas Oil in 1957. Made me wonder if he was just flipping through every page of Moody’s just like
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Charlie Munger liked cigar butts more than people give him credit for. He made 45% in a year in his personal account on Hays Lemmerz – a messy bankruptcy "deep value" situation. Link in bio for the story.
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Nine figure payday. Secretive billionaires, skewed incentives, long legal battle, 10-figure award, life-changing fees. A little-known Pritzker story. Link in bio.
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Fun first entry from @RockwoodNotes . The Pritzker family is fascinating. So many great stories and lessons to learn. Excited to see what comes next.
First article is out. Free for all to read. I cover the life of Nicholas Pritzker, which I consider central to understanding the Pritzker story. He immigrated, gritted his way to be the family’s first attorney, and established an ethos that defined the family for generations.
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"Retailing has a way of making those whom it would destroy magazine success stories first.". Lazarus knew the perils of retail competition as well as anyone, yet TRU couldn't escape it. Fascinating case study.
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Toys R Us peaked in the mid-90s before competition caught up and the world evolved away from big box toy stores. Change can happen incredibly fast in retail. These two articles are only 15 years apart.
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Toys provided the widest selection of goods all under one roof at prices lower than alternatives. As Charles used to say, "If the toy exists, we have it and the price is right.". TRU kept prices low, creating a flywheel of increasing scale advantages and customer goodwill.
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What happened next is one of the best retail runs in American history. From 1978 to 1994 sales grew from $274 million to $8 billion (23% CAGR). EPS did even better, compounding at 26%. The P/E ratio went from 5x to 25x. The stock went from $0.40 (split adjusted) to $40.
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New TRU stock started trading OTC in 1978 at $8/share. Larry was up 8x in less than four years and the stock still traded for only 5x earnings. Free from the burden of bankruptcy, Interstate was renamed Toys R Us and Lazarus was made CEO. Growth prospects were strong.
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Larry Goldstein bought Interstate convertible debentures and trade claims from various sellers. These became common stock post-bankruptcy. He cobbled together more than 2 million shares with an average basis of around $1/share ($0.04 after later splits).
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The discount stores were liquidated, the department stores were reduced and turned profitable, and the toy division was growing rapidly.
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Meanwhile, Charles' toy division was growing and highly profitable.
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Interstate was a collection of department and discount department stores. In the early 1970s, the discounting division cracked. The company started losing money and eventually filed for bankruptcy.
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Charles Lazarus founded Toys R Us in 1948. He grew it to four stores and sold the business to Interstate Stores in 1966 for $7.5 million ($74 million in 2025 dollars). Charles stayed on as head of Toys R Us, given free rein to continue to grow and expand his business.
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1,000-bagger in 18 years. 46% CAGR. One of the best bankruptcy investments of the 20th century. I teamed up with @turtlebay_io on this one.
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Balchem's biggest publicity came in 2016 when @jasonzweigwsj wrote an entertaining article about it.
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