For investors, paper stock shares are rarely if ever issued. Stock holdings are tracked electronically in "book" form. However, buyers can obtain single share stock certificates, which are often used as gifts.
Location
Single-share stock certificates aren't provided by the companies that issue the share. Instead, those companies print individual shares and sell them to specialty dealers, who in turn sell them to the public. Online single-share stock dealers include oneshare.com, uniquestockgift.com and shareinaframe.com.
Function
The single-share stock gift companies sell share certificates for almost any major corporation. Popular stock shares include Apple, Coca Cola, Dreamworks and Disney. The share will be an actual share of stock with voting rights and value. The stock gift company will also offer frames, engraving and gift wrapping services for the stock certificates.
Costs
The costs of purchasing a single-share certificate includes the cost of the share, a transfer fee to the gift company and any additional costs for frames, mattes and engraving. The transfer fee is $35 to $40 and you can get a free cardboard frame, so the minimum price will be the stock share price plus about $40. Engraving and custom picture mattes are $5 to $10. Frames range from a few dollars up to $100 or more.
Tags: stock certificates, gift company, sell them, share stock, single-share stock