William Shatner

Even buy-and-hold investors can't afford to let their portfolios collect cobwebs. Valuations and fundamentals change perpetually, and shareholders need to know when there's more potential for growth elsewhere. Here we take a look at some online travel agency stocks worth swapping: Expedia and Priceline.

Philadelphia Eagles quarterback Michael Vick, still atoning for his role in an illegal dog-fighting ring, reportedly asked for $100,000 to address the Animal Friendly Association at Richard Stockton College. It's completely untrue, but like all gossip, the lie has spread faster than Vick can evade a tackle.

In 1999, Priceline saw its stock surge to absurd heights before it had earned a cent in profit, and after the bubble burst, it lost more than 99% of its value. But from that low, the discount travel site began a hard journey to profitability that has proven there are second acts in dot-com companies' lives.

The Internet rumor mill has actor William Shatner being proclaimed a financial genius for supposedly reaping $600 million from being Priceline's spokesman. But the numbers don't add up -- it's not logical, as Spock would say.

William Shatner may not be available, but patients who use a new Web site to negotiate prices with doctors might want to use Shatner's tactics as "The Negotiator" for Priceline.com. PriceDoc.com started in Seattle in April and is set to go national in November, allowing people to name their...

There are good reasons why some people are afraid of or unwilling to bid on travel on Priceline.com. Its TV commercials, with William Shatner phoning it in for a paycheck, can be plenty o' annoying, for one. But more troubling is the idea that by using the site, you're offering to pay money for...