# Costly goods **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 12, 1999, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883 "1999-10-12T03:24:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/1 "1999-10-12T03:24:00Z")
OK, i’ve done a search and couldn’t find a thread related to this one, but if I did miss it, my apologies…administrator, please delete. I know there are a few a few cerebral bullies around here who love to slap people down in a nasty way…anyway, onto the topic. A friend of mine is a biochemist and he ordered a chemical (from Sigma), arachidonic acid, for the princely sum of $13-60 per 10 milligrams…i thought it was hugely expensive until he showed me a list of others which have astronomical prices. The most expensive i found was Leukptriene B5, costing over $100 for 10 MICROGRAMS…that’s (obviously?) over $10 million per gram!! Maybe you could get a bulk discount, i don’t know. So, my question is this, is there a more valuable substance available which one can actually purchase? I doubt even rocks from Mars could be this expensive. Am I wrong? ---
**Author:** ![Inky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d78d45/32.png) [@Inky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/2 "1999-10-12T03:44:00Z")
I just want to take this opportunity to mention… Gallon jugs of my urine… Still only ten dollars (plus two dollars shipping and handling)!! Wow, your saying! How can Inky afford sell gallon jugs of his own golden amber urine for the low, low price of ten dollars (plus two dollars shipping and handling)!? I’ll tell you… Volume, volume, volume!! My urine is produced in small quantities (usually only a cup or two at a time, more on pitcher beer night), collected, fermented in huge glass-lined vats, bottled by illegal Ukranian immigrants who never stop muttering in a threatening manner, stored in declassified governmant fallout shelters, and best of all, I pass the savings on to you!! Just send twelve dollars (heck, make it an even thirteen)in unmarked, nonsequential bills to: Inky Not an illegal urine repository Shelter 15 Livermore California While supplies last! ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/3 "1999-10-12T03:46:00Z")
Damn typos, should be ‘Leukotrienes’…and just one ‘a few’… ---
**Author:** ![Gaudere](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e495f1/32.png) [@Gaudere](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gaudere)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/4 "1999-10-12T04:19:00Z")
Cecil comes to the rescue: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1\_329a.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_329a.html) Californium-252, $350 billion per pound. You can also buy antimatter, which I recommend for its pure coolness value. I read in some quantum physics book that we can now produce it, but I don’t remember how much it said it goes for. * * * “Eppur, si muove!” - Galileo Galilei ---
**Author:** ![Nickrz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bbce88/32.png) [@Nickrz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nickrz)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/5 "1999-10-12T09:29:00Z")
Antimatter salesmen only stick around long enough to annihilate your bank account. ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/6 "1999-10-12T13:01:00Z")
Does buying antimatter _add_ money to your bank account? ---
**Author:** ![Inky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/d78d45/32.png) [@Inky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inky)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/7 "1999-10-12T14:03:00Z")
Only if you have a negative balance in your cheching account. ---
**Author:** ![BurnMeUp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@BurnMeUp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BurnMeUp)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/8 "1999-10-12T14:36:00Z")
if you want non-chemical items, saffron is pretty expensive * * * Just add water, it makes it’s own sauce! ---
**Author:** ![torq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/9 "1999-10-12T18:07:00Z")
Radioactives are sort of cheating. Joe Schmoe can’t buy Cf-252. For that matter, most chemical suppliers won’t sell Joe HIMSELF anything, but they’ll happily sell Joe Schmoe Inc. or Schmoe College pretty much whatever unregulated substances those legal fictions want to buy. I don’t think the AEC/NRC/whatever is quite so open. Biochemicals and isotopically enriched materials are the most expensive substances I know of that an average guy/company can get their hands on. ---
**Author:** ![torq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/10 "1999-10-12T18:13:00Z")
Oh, about antimatter… I think so far humans have managed to produce on the order of a dozen ATOMS of anti-hydrogen. I’m not sure what it cost to do so, but if it was a penny each (a ridiculously low figure) that’s something like 13,000,000 trillion dollars a pound. ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/11 "1999-10-12T18:50:00Z")
That’s pretty darn expensive…maybe antimoney is the answer. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 8:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/12 "1999-10-12T20:59:00Z")
I hate to quibble with torq, who is so often right, but larger quantities of antimatter are routinely produced in the larger particle accelerators. Some operate with counter-rotating beams of protons and anti-protons or electrons and anti-electrons. While the (anti-)particle density is very low, it is significantly larger than dozens of particles. Still, I would hate to have to pay for them. ## I will, however, sell you a matchbox full of anti-neutrinos for $100.00. Send me your address and a crisp C-note and I will send you your prize by return mail. Strangers have the best candy. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/13 "1999-10-12T21:20:00Z")
Don’t take Pluto’s offer!! I’ll send them to you for free. In fact, I’m shipping them out right now! Of course, you do have to **catch** them… 😉 ---
**Author:** ![torq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/14 "1999-10-12T22:17:00Z")
pluto is right: physicists have been making antiparticles for at least thirty years. In the course of trying to figure out just how many antiatoms (as opposed to elementary antiparticles) have been made I discovered several things: 1. I thought antiatoms were a recent (i.e. this year) development, but it turns out that they were announced by a team working at CERN back in January 1996, when they made nine antihydrogen atoms. 2. Fermilab had made some antiH by November 1996. 3. Fermilab was planning to make about five antiH atoms per day, according to their press release announcing 2) above. 4. If they’ve actually done so and issued a press release about it I can’t find it on their web site. 5. Fermilab’s web site is a maze. 6. Assuming they CAN make 5 per day, that gives us a cost: we figure out how much it costs to run the accelerator at Fermilab for a day and divide by five. 7. It’s going to be significantly more than a penny. ---
**Author:** ![pluto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f08c70/32.png) [@pluto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pluto)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/15 "1999-10-12T22:20:00Z")
## And then you’d have to buy a Klein bottle to keep them in. Strangers have the best candy. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/16 "1999-10-12T22:26:00Z")
**android209** > [@](#): > > That’s pretty darn expensive…maybe antimoney is the answer. Good trade. Refined (99.65% pure) antimony trades at around $1220/metric ton, near its recent lows. If you could arrange a mass for anti-mass trade, you’d have enough stuff (anti-stuff?) to prove all those annoying Relativists wrong. Or at least enough to annihilate them. * * * Livin’ on Tums, Vitamin E and Rogaine ---
**Author:** ![Andy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/aeb1de/32.png) [@Andy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andy)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/17 "1999-10-12T22:58:00Z")
Sblendid Idea! ---
**Author:** ![torq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@torq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/torq)\ **Post date:** [October 12, 1999, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/18 "1999-10-12T23:01:00Z")
> [@](#): > > And then you’d have to buy a Klein bottle to keep them in. Why bother buying it? Just keep your stuff in it anyway. If the owner doesn’t like it, let him empty it out… ---
**Author:** ![tanstaafl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ba8739/32.png) [@tanstaafl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tanstaafl)\ **Post date:** [October 13, 1999, 1:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/costly-goods/3883/19 "1999-10-13T13:46:00Z")
You can get your Klein Bottle here: ## [www.kleinbottle.com](http://www.kleinbottle.com) “You can’t run away forever; but there’s nothing wrong with getting a good head start.” — Jim Steinman Dennis Matheson — [Dennis@mountaindiver.com](mailto:Dennis@mountaindiver.com) Hike, Dive, Ski, Climb — [www.mountaindiver.com](http://www.mountaindiver.com)