Yes, but you want as many specifics as you can get. The thing is, you will be one of many people trying to sell info about the future. The others are mostly known as psychics and are generally frauds. You will just be another of them, except with a different story (although come to think of it, it’s possible there are others claiming to be from the future and trying to sell this kind of info. They’re mostly frauds as well.)
So although your predictions may be correct, to the customers of such, you’re just another voice in the crowd. They’re not going to be convinced without you establishing a track record, which means you need to make a number of correct predictions, especially if you don’t make any incorrect ones. So having a sports almanac (and a general almanac too) would let you establish your track record.
That $100 bill may actually be most useful for establishing that you are indeed from the future. It has at least one security feature that I don’t believe was on any banknote of the time. And it would be pretty much impossible for an individual to produce the bill on their own.
I’ve already pointed out earlier in the thread that our current $100 bills are significantly different than the ones from 2005. It’s not going to be just the date that’s different. They’re probably different enough that they would not be considered counterfeit.
Other things that may help you establish your futurity are your cell phone, which (unless you have an old design) will have a number of features not on 2005 phones, and possibly your credit cards, which may have a chip embedded in them. Fairly sure those didn’t exist in 2005, even in other countries.
I don’t know why some are having so much trouble with the premise- crazy bullshit ideas are pretty normal on the SDMB.
But I think strictly speaking Bill Door has it. It’s really worth $100 at the point it becomes legit, which I think has to be when it’s printed. As such, I think it essentially is a bond.
It would be more interesting I think if it were a less stable currency, since it would then be harder to value, although I am sure bonds are issued by nearly all governments.
If it were authenticated somehow, why would it necessarily revert to face value?
There’s a serial number making it unique. It’s the one known bill that traveled through time. That could make it hold value to collectors, even if the origin time has arrived.
Maybe there will be speculators that think the bill has some special characteristic/power because of the time travel.
Why would a 2015 $100 bill pass authenticity checks in 2005? It looks significantly different than those in circulation then.
Several people here are posting like they’ve never seen one of the new $100s. That’s hard to believe (they’ve been in circulation for a year and a half now), but maybe they’d better review the images of the two that I posted above.
You find it hard to believe that people don’t routinely see $100s? The only time I’ve ever had a $100 bill in my hand was the one or two times I went to the bank and specifically asked for a $100 bill to put in a gift card. $20s are the largest thing I routinely have in my wallet.
Yes, but the amount of money you can make betting on presidential elections is very limited. Since the winner is invariably either the Democratic or Republican candidate, the odds you get for picking the right winner will always be around even money. Even if you include betting on candidates before and during the primaries, before the party candidates are determined, you’ll hardly ever find a situation in the past where the winning candidate would have had odds of much more than in the order of magnitude of 10 to 1. And in absolute terms, the amount of money you can bet on presidential elections is capped, so your absolute winnings are too.
Because of that, I’d go for something like the strategy described by robert_columbia. Our time traveller would be very likely to remember that a big economic crisis started in late 2007. Playing the financial markets can give you much better returns, both percentage-wise and in absolute terms, than betting on presidential elections.
In theory, yes. In practice, no. How much would you pay for a $100 bill that is (nearly) indistinguishable from any other $100 bill? What are you going to do with it? Frame it and hang it on your wall, and then spend the rest of your life having to explain what it is to everybody who sees it?
“No, it’s not a regular bill… Yes, I realize it looks exactly like every other $100 bill. This one has been through time… How can you tell? Well because of the serial number. I got it from that guy in Pescadero who says he travelled back in time… No it doesn’t shoot lasers or anything.”