I hope 500$ is not a good investment though but if you look for short term investment you won't make much profit on the investment you made. So set a goal for long-term investment may be you can turn your 500$ into more than 2 or 3 BTC. Right now ETC is still at 20$ only, there are many chances that the price of ETC will increase.
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I've been HODLing some ETC myself. It's sitting around 18$-20$ and I expect it to see a pump similar to what Litecoin just had where it'll reach at least 50$ if not 75$-100$. Defiantly an investment to be made.