SortStack #1641 — 2030-12-06

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A banana duct-taped to a wall, the artwork 'Comedian' $6.2M

   The 2024 buyer, a crypto entrepreneur, ate the banana at a press conference. The artwork is really a certificate — owners get instructions for replacing the fruit.

2. Dennis Tito's trip to the International Space Station as the first space tourist $20M

   NASA objected so strongly to the 2001 visit that Tito trained in Russia and flew on a Soyuz — NASA staff were initially told not to assist him.

3. The Codex Sassoon, the earliest most-complete Hebrew Bible $38.1M

   The roughly 1,100-year-old manuscript sold in 2023 and was donated to a museum in Tel Aviv — it had spent decades in private hands, rarely seen.

4. 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.

5. 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.

6. Twitter, when Elon Musk bought it $44B

   Musk tried to back out and was sued into completing the 2022 deal — he walked into headquarters carrying a sink, posting 'let that sink in.'

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