SortStack #2656 — 2033-09-16

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. A grande latte at Starbucks $4.50

   The coffee beans in a latte cost the chain well under fifty cents — milk, labor, and rent make up most of what you pay.

2. One year of renting a giant panda from China $1M

   China owns nearly every panda on Earth and leases them to foreign zoos — cubs born abroad are also Chinese property and must eventually be flown 'home.'

3. The rarest Pokemon card, the Pikachu Illustrator, in mint condition $5.3M

   Logan Paul bought it in 2022, setting a Guinness World Record — then wore it around his neck into a WrestleMania match.

4. 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.

5. Banksy's 'Love is in the Bin,' the painting that shredded itself at auction $25.4M

   The hidden shredder jammed halfway, leaving the work half-intact. Three years after the stunt, the 'ruined' piece resold for roughly eighteen times its pre-shred price.

6. Lucasfilm and the Star Wars franchise, when Disney bought them $4.1B

   George Lucas took much of the 2012 payment in Disney stock and has donated billions toward education — Disney recouped the price within a few films.

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