SortStack #3181 — 2035-02-23

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. 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.

4. A Boeing 737 MAX 8 airliner at list price $120M

   Airlines almost never pay list price — discounts of around half are standard, which is why Boeing eventually stopped publishing its price sheet entirely.

5. 'Salvator Mundi,' the painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci $450.3M

   The most expensive artwork ever sold was bought for about $1,000 at a 2005 estate sale. Since the 2017 auction, it has not been publicly seen.

6. The entire Apollo Moon program, in the dollars of its day $25.4B

   At its peak, Apollo employed about 400,000 people and consumed more than 4% of the US federal budget — per landing, each Moon mission cost less than a modern aircraft carrier.

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