SortStack #1732 — 2031-03-07

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. Costco's famous hot dog and soda combo $1.50

   The price has been frozen since 1985. Co-founder Jim Sinegal reportedly told his CEO: 'If you raise the price of the hot dog, I will kill you.'

2. A new hardcover bestseller $30

   Hardcovers exist partly as price discrimination: publishers sell to eager fans at a premium first, then release the cheaper paperback a year later.

3. An Apple Vision Pro headset $3.5K

   Each Vision Pro contains more pixels in its two tiny displays than a 4K television — packed into screens roughly the size of postage stamps.

4. 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.

5. Alaska, as the United States paid Russia for it $7.2M

   The 1867 nominal price worked out to about two cents per acre. Critics called it 'Seward's Folly' — then gold and oil turned it into history's great bargain.

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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