Can I sell worthless share certificates to collectors…?
Whoa there big fella! Don’t get ahead of yourself. 1) If the shares were registered in Grandfather’s name and the company that issued them (or its successor by merger / acquisition) still exists then the shares and their value in the company is an asset of Grandpa’s estate that is available to his creditors, etc. So you’d want to talk to whomever handled the probate of Grandpa’s estate about those. 2) If by your question you mean “shares were issued by company X which is totally dead and gone, period.” Then you are right they are just paper whose value is based on their existence as paper, not as a proxy for ownership. 3) If you think you can claim ownership of the interests represented by the paper – i.e., you have a certificate for 1,000 shares of X which was bought by and subsumed into Y which still exists today then you need to contact the registrar for Y and surrender your 1,000 X share certificates to be redeemed into book shares of Y at the correct rate. When Y bought X they may
