A decade ago there was, briefly, a mini-craze in the investment world where tellurium was being eyed as a target to hoard and possibly corner the market. On the surface it seemed like a good strategy. The element is significantly rarer than gold and the need for it was increasing dramatically due to its use on the coatings of DVDs and rewriteable CDs. Tellurium was also needed for the construction of photovoltaics, the key material in the making of solar panels, another fast-growing market segment.

Those, however, were the waning days of physical media and the US market for solar panel manufacturing never got off the ground due to intense competition from China. The one-two punch pretty much ended the get-rich-quick schemes of the tellurium investing community.

Even without those untimely downturns tellurium would have made an iffy bet for the investor. While there’s no denying its rarity or its growing demand the fact is that what little of it there is is concentrated into a few convenient locations. This means that while tellurium is rare in absolute terms the market should have easy access to the remaining stores for at least the next few decades, thus negating any need to rush and get in on the action early.

Your grandkids may hold these samples as great heirlooms but for you all it takes to get your hands on one is a few bucks!