SortStack #3573 — 2036-03-21

By price · Order from cheapest to most expensive.

1. 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.

2. A new MacBook Pro, base model $1.6K

   Apple's first laptop ancestor, the 1989 Macintosh Portable, weighed over seven kilograms and cost the equivalent of more than $16,000 today.

3. An average American wedding $33K

   The single biggest line item is usually the venue. Meanwhile the median engagement ring, despite the marketing, costs a fraction of the 'three months salary' rule.

4. Stan, one of the most complete T. rex skeletons ever found $31.8M

   After the record 2020 sale, Stan's whereabouts were a mystery for years — he eventually surfaced as the future star of a new natural history museum in Abu Dhabi.

5. Instagram, when Facebook bought it $1B

   In 2012 Instagram had 13 employees and zero revenue. The price was widely mocked as insane — it may be the best acquisition in tech history.

6. Constructing the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest building $1.5B

   It was renamed at the last minute for the president of Abu Dhabi, whose emirate bailed out Dubai during the 2009 debt crisis — it was to be called Burj Dubai.

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