SortStack #1599 — 2030-10-25

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. Manhattan Island, as the Dutch paid for it (in goods, at the famous valuation) $24

   The Dutch paid 60 guilders in trade goods in 1626 — a sum 19th-century historians famously converted to about $24. Manhattan real estate is now worth well over a trillion.

2. A dozen red roses from a florist $55

   Most US roses are flown in from Colombia and Ecuador — around Valentine's Day, cargo jets full of nothing but flowers land in Miami daily.

3. A PlayStation 5 console $500

   The PS5 sold out so fast at launch during the pandemic that scalper bots became a news story — resale prices briefly doubled the sticker.

4. A Hermes Birkin handbag at retail, entry size $12K

   The bag was born on a flight when actress Jane Birkin's basket spilled — the Hermes CEO sitting beside her sketched a better bag on an airsickness bag.

5. Thirty seconds of advertising time during the Super Bowl $8M

   In 1967, a Super Bowl ad cost about $42,000. Brands now spend millions more on celebrity talent and production than on the airtime itself.

6. 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.

← All puzzles · Play today’s SortStack