I also had the dividend reinvestment option turned on, so it's accumulated a bit more. Been through several splits since the initial purchase. I sold some shares about 6 or 7 years ago to put a 9kW solar system on the house. My wife also has a ROTH IRA account with AAPL shares bought a long time ago...and in a ROTH those gains are tax-free.
I just checked this morning, and my cost-basis on the initial shares stands at a little over $0.79 cents, and it was selling at around $495, for a little over 65,000% overall gain to date.
Not too shabby!
Don't feel too bad about selling and taking a little profit, though - think about Ronald Wayne.
Ronald Wayne was one of the 3 original Apple founders, and he had a 10% share of the company when the partnership was first created (Jobs and Wozniak each held 45%, and Wayne was to be a tie-breaker). After the initial $15K loan was taken out he got cold feet (all partners are financially liable for things, and he was the only one with a net worth that would make him the target) and he sold his 10% share in the company for $800. He said he doesn't regret the sale, as it was the best thing for him, at the time.
In the early 1990s, Wayne sold the original Apple partnership contract paper, signed in 1976 by Jobs, Wozniak, and himself, for US$500. In 2011, the contract was sold at auction for $1.6 million. Wayne has stated that he regrets that sale.
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