Cheapest commodity

Sitting here with my roommate, and we’ve come up with a question: What is the cheapest commodity by weight?

In other words, we’ve got a one ton scale and we want to test it. :slight_smile:
As our test-facility is in the middle of the Ghobi Desert, we won’t be able to collect water to put on the scale, and sadly, the resale value for sand is practically non-existant. With our high-speed internet access, though, we are willing to import to our laboratory that one special item which we can find most cheaply.
So, what commodity can we purchase most cheaply?

wag: salt?

Hay is pretty cheap by the ton.

da_pope, we actually already priced road salt out at between $25-50 per ton. Surely there must be something cheaper out there. Newsprint, perhaps?

Not even close. That sand is closer. Construction materials like sand, gravel, fill dirt, and so on, are sold by quarry operations for prices of a few dollars a ton:

http://www.waynepaving.com/page5.html

Obviously, that price means you show up with your truck, dig it out of the pile, and drive away with with it. Often fill dirt is given away free by somebody who has wound up with a surplus of dirt to whomever wants to come and cart it away.

Now, as to the shipping price to get that $2.50 ton of fill dirt into the Ghobi Desert …

$25 per ton isn’t cheap? You’ve got to be kidding me.

AOL CDs ?

A commodity is something someone WANTS …