SortStack #1067 — 2029-05-11

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A single Powerball lottery ticket $2.00

   The odds of hitting the jackpot are about 1 in 292 million — you are far likelier to be struck by lightning multiple times in your life.

2. The record bluefin tuna sold at Tokyo's New Year fish auction $3.1M

   The 278 kg fish was bought in 2019 by a sushi chain owner known as the 'Tuna King' — the first auction of the year is partly a publicity ritual.

3. A Sixties Ferrari 250 GTO sold at auction $48.4M

   Only 36 were built, and the owners' club is so exclusive that some sales are vetted. Private GTO deals have reportedly topped even the public auction record.

4. A Boeing 737 MAX 8 airliner at list price $120M

   Airlines almost never pay list price — discounts of around half are standard, which is why Boeing eventually stopped publishing its price sheet entirely.

5. 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.

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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