SortStack #1515 — 2030-08-02

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. 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.

2. One year at Harvard, including tuition, room, and board $82K

   Harvard's endowment is so large that the university could theoretically let every undergraduate attend free and barely notice — financial aid means many already pay little.

3. 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.

4. Neymar's transfer from Barcelona to Paris Saint-Germain $263M

   PSG triggered his 'unbuyable' release clause in 2017, paying more than double the previous world record — a fee designed to be impossible.

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. Activision Blizzard, when Microsoft bought it $68.7B

   The biggest gaming acquisition ever took nearly two years to close as regulators on three continents scrutinized it — the UK initially blocked it outright.

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