In the end all they got was $1.86. That’s the price First Banks of St. Louis paid for shares of financially troubled Coast Financial Holdings, part of a fire sale that closed Friday.

A short history lesson: Bradenton-based Coast Bank lost tens of millions of dollars when St. Petersburg builder Construction Compliance Inc. collapsed before completing nearly 500 homes for Coast customers.

The builder had promised no-money down investment homes in Sarasota County that buyers would flip for a profit. Few had a chance to flip. Even fewer profited. The housing slump put the kibosh on that.

Before the troubles hit in January, Coast stock had been trading around $16 and it’s a tribute to how far its fortune had fallen that the $3.40 per share First Banks agreed to pay last summer was trimmed by bad loans to $1.86.

As Florida banking analyst Ken Thomas predicted earlier this year in reference to Coast: "It’s going to be like visiting the clearance rack."

No money down. Easy gains. Little risk. File the whole sorry chapter into the too-good-to-be-true file.