If you had invested $1,000 in Amazon when the company went public on May 15, 1997, you would be $229,045 richer by now.
But that's over the course of 16 years. Had you invested that same $1,000 in companies like LinkedIn or Facebook during their IPOs, your earnings would be substantially less to date — $3,972 and $269, respectively — but each of those companies had IPOs less than three years ago.
Image: mashable.com
