SortStack #2229 — 2032-07-16

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A pack of cigarettes in the US, on average $8.00

   Prices vary wildly by state taxes: a pack runs around six dollars in Missouri but can top twelve in New York.

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 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.

4. A Tesla Powerwall home battery, installed $9.3K

   A Powerwall stores about enough electricity to run a typical US home for half a day to a day — many owners buy them less for savings than for blackout insurance.

5. 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.

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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