SortStack #199 — 2026-12-25

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A US Forever postage stamp $0.78

   Forever stamps never expire and stay valid even after rate hikes — buying sheets before an increase is one of America's tiniest investments.

2. A Tesla Powerwall home battery, installed $9.3K

   A Powerwall stores about enough electricity to run a typical US home for half a day to a day — many owners buy them less for savings than for blackout insurance.

3. A new hot-air balloon with basket and burner $40K

   The envelope fabric slowly degrades with UV exposure — most balloons retire after a few hundred flight hours, making cost per flight surprisingly high.

4. The Louisiana Purchase, as the US paid France $15M

   The 1803 nominal price bought about 2.1 million square kilometers — roughly three cents per acre — and doubled the size of the United States overnight.

5. The Pink Star diamond, sold at auction in Hong Kong $71.2M

   A previous buyer defaulted after bidding $83 million, forcing a re-auction — the 59.6 carat stone took two years just to cut and polish.

6. Pixar, when Disney bought it $7.4B

   The 2006 deal made Steve Jobs Disney's largest individual shareholder — he had bought Pixar from George Lucas two decades earlier for about $10 million.

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