SortStack #605 — 2028-02-04

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. Manhattan Island, as the Dutch paid for it (in goods, at the famous valuation) $24

   The Dutch paid 60 guilders in trade goods in 1626 — a sum 19th-century historians famously converted to about $24. Manhattan real estate is now worth well over a trillion.

2. LEGO's giant Ultimate Collector Series Millennium Falcon set $850

   At over 7,500 pieces it is one of the largest LEGO sets ever sold — sealed originals of the 2007 version have resold for several times the new price.

3. An iPhone Pro at launch $999

   The components inside an iPhone cost Apple roughly half the sticker price — the rest covers R&D, software, marketing, and famously healthy margins.

4. An average American funeral with burial $8K

   The funeral industry's pricing was so opaque that US law now requires itemized price lists — caskets alone often carry markups of several hundred percent.

5. The Codex Sassoon, the earliest most-complete Hebrew Bible $38.1M

   The roughly 1,100-year-old manuscript sold in 2023 and was donated to a museum in Tel Aviv — it had spent decades in private hands, rarely seen.

6. One F-35A stealth fighter jet $82.5M

   The pilot's helmet alone costs about $400,000 — it lets the pilot effectively see through the aircraft via cameras mounted around the fuselage.

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