Gift Giving Guy

Give a piece of capitalism, give a single share of stock.

These gifts are actual stock certificates — framed, matted and even personalized — for some of America’s favorite publicly held corporations. You can give someone single-share ownership in Disney, Harley-Davidson, Tiffany & Co, Coca-Cola, Starbucks, Martha Stewart, Nike, Krispy Kreme and more through these online services:

• OneShare.com
• SingleShare.com
• Frame A Stock, Inc.

My wife gave me a single share of Apple stock for our first anniversary. (After all, paper is the traditional first anniversary gift.) She ordered the black-framed stock through OneShare.com, the pioneer and current leader in single-stock gifts. The frame hangs proudly in our upstairs study at home. I get Apple annual reports and shareholder voting privileges but no dividends. (Apple has not paid dividends on common stock since 1995.) Still, other single stock gifts do offer dividends — although we’re talking loose change here with just one share.

When ordering a single stock gift from OneShare.com, follow these tips:

• Remember this is a gift and not really a financial investment. For the cost of the frame and matting ($39 and up), personalized message ($10, optional) and the processing fee ($39), you can end up paying double the cost of an actual share of stock. Order an actual frame rather than the free paper frame — unless you would like to custom frame it yourself. Of course, the idea is to save the recipient the trouble of having the stock certificate framed.
• Plan for the actual framed stock to arrive within six to eight weeks. Yes, the process can take that long with purchasing, registering, printing and framing paper certificates. If you aren’t thinking two months ahead, OneShare.com offers its free OneShare Start-up Kit. The kit arrives in a few days (to you or the recipient) and includes a congratulatory card, a reference guide and owner’s manual. If your stock is a last-minute present, you can print (or e-mail) a gift announcement.
• You can purchase a stock for a child (but not an unborn child). You will need to put the stock in both the child’s and the parent’s name. You also can buy a single stock for a couple, if both recipients are 18.
• Add an engraving to the frame for a personalized flair. For a Harley-Davidson stock, OneShare.com suggests: “Harleys don’t leak oil, they mark their territory.”

A single stock share makes a great gift for a birthday or first anniversary, a thank-you to groomsmen or a Christmas present.