SortStack #1200 — 2029-09-21

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A pair of white Nike Air Force 1 sneakers $110

   Released in 1982 as a basketball shoe, the Air Force 1 still sells millions of pairs a year — virtually unchanged in design for four decades.

2. 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.

3. A Dyson Airwrap hair styler $600

   Dyson spent about 100 million pounds developing the Airwrap, using the same tiny high-speed motor technology as its vacuums.

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. A Steinway Model D concert grand piano $200K

   Each Model D takes about a year to build and contains over 12,000 parts. Most major concert halls keep several, tuned before every performance.

6. Instagram, when Facebook bought it $1B

   In 2012 Instagram had 13 employees and zero revenue. The price was widely mocked as insane — it may be the best acquisition in tech history.

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