SortStack #934 — 2028-12-29

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A new hardcover bestseller $30

   Hardcovers exist partly as price discrimination: publishers sell to eager fans at a premium first, then release the cheaper paperback a year later.

2. One year of renting a giant panda from China $1M

   China owns nearly every panda on Earth and leases them to foreign zoos — cubs born abroad are also Chinese property and must eventually be flown 'home.'

3. Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, when Disney bought them $4.1B

   George Lucas took much of the 2012 payment in Disney stock and has donated billions toward education — Disney recouped the price within a few films.

4. The James Webb Space Telescope $10B

   Webb's mirror is coated with about 48 grams of gold — roughly a golf ball's worth — spread across 18 hexagonal segments.

5. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the US Navy's newest aircraft carrier $13B

   It launches jets with electromagnetic catapults instead of steam, and its two reactors are designed to run 25 years without refueling.

6. WhatsApp, when Facebook bought it $19B

   At the 2014 acquisition, WhatsApp had about 55 employees serving 450 million users — a price of roughly $350 million per employee.

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