ImClone soars to $200 a share

ImClone Systems, star of biotech’s highest-profile insider trading scandal, has long since been absorbed by Eli Lilly, but you can claim a share of the company right this minute at the discounted price of $199.95.

The stock certificate is, in strict financial terms, worth exactly zero dollars. But to customers of Scripophily.com, memorabilia of yesteryear’s frauds and disasters is a worthwhile investment. As company founder Bob Kerstein told Businessweek, “the flops are worth more dead than alive.”

Among his site’s offerings are mortgage-backed securities from Credit Suisse, shares of now-defunct Trump hotels, and pre-bankruptcy Blockbuster Video certificates. As for ImClone, the $199.95 price tag — down from $249.95 — is nearly three times what Lilly paid per share in 2008, and it’s almost quadruple the sale price that landed former CEO Sam Waksal in federal prison, but then how much is too much of a piece of biotech history?