SortStack #780 — 2028-07-28

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A pair of Apple AirPods Pro $249

   AirPods alone generate more revenue than Spotify, Twitter, and Shopify each did when analysts ran the comparison — earbuds as a Fortune 500-scale business.

2. The average used car in the United States $27.5K

   During the pandemic chip shortage, some lightly used cars briefly sold for more than their brand-new equivalents — dealers couldn't get new stock.

3. A Bugatti Chiron Super Sport $3.9M

   Bugatti reportedly loses or barely breaks even on each hypercar once development is counted — parent companies treat them as rolling brand advertisements.

4. The finest-known Mickey Mantle baseball card from his rookie era $12.6M

   The 1952 Topps card sold in 2022 became the most expensive piece of sports memorabilia ever — countless others were dumped in the ocean by Topps in the Fifties.

5. Constructing the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building $1.5B

   It was renamed at the last minute for the president of Abu Dhabi, whose emirate bailed out Dubai during the 2009 debt crisis — it was to be called Burj Dubai.

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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