SortStack #2768 — 2034-01-06

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. A Sixties Ferrari 250 GTO sold at auction $48.4M

   Only 36 were built, and the owners' club is so exclusive that some sales are vetted. Private GTO deals have reportedly topped even the public auction record.

4. The Mona Lisa's insurance valuation for its world tour in the Sixties $100M

   It was the highest insurance valuation in history at the time — but the Louvre skipped the premium and spent the money on security instead.

5. Mojang, the maker of Minecraft, when Microsoft bought it $2.5B

   Creator Markus 'Notch' Persson sold partly due to burnout, tweeting that he didn't want the responsibility — Minecraft went on to become the best-selling game ever.

6. The USS Gerald R. Ford, the US Navy's newest aircraft carrier $13B

   It launches jets with electromagnetic catapults instead of steam, and its two reactors are designed to run 25 years without refueling.

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