I win the lottery for $500 million. what is the most expensive thing for sale? actually up for sale, I know everything has its price, not like the Mona Lisa, or the Pieta. no Real Estate. It has to be something I can bring home to my castle on my island.
Last I heard, Anna Nicole Smith was available again.
Well, start out with a decent pair of stereo speakers. For $250,000 you can get a pair of German Physiks Tiebreak. Get 2 pair if you’re into home theater.
Please! He asked for the most expensive thing. Hell, you find watches for more than that pair of speakers.
the point of this thread is that I would say “Hope Diamond”, Mona Lisa, Pieta,… all neat things but not “for Sale” exactly. So I would then think Ferrari, Lear Jet,… But I am sure that there are one of a kind items for sale that are just so expensive that nobody has bought them. What are some of them? …
I think to keep this in GQ it probably ought to be narrowed down a little further, justin. For example, “a water tunnel from the Catskills to midtown Manhattan” is actually being build and purchased right now, and is costing bajillions, but I don’t think that’s what you’re looking for, either.
How about “what is the highest price ever paid for a single something intended for personal or family use?” Does that work?
I stand by my answer.
I need something that I can take home. I read about the T REX bones that were offered for sale but had no takers. Are there painting masterpieces that are for sale? historical relics? WC Fields’ cane, '71 Hemi Cuda convertible,…
I think that is why this is a GQ.
I guess that after all is said and done, a couple of million will buy happiness (as defined as anything I could have at my house for my friends to envy)
I suspact that the most expensive thing an individual could get would be a personal spacecraft, something about the size of an RV.
Since this does not quite exist (although a number of companies are trying) you would have to fund one of the existing research efforts through to completion.
The licensing, paperwork, and legal issues alone would use up that 500-million quickly, before anyone even touched metal…
You could buy your own private 747.
Hull purchase price (new): about $180 million
Interior (carpet, galley, seats, beds, hot tub, home theatre, etc.): $20-40 million
Operating cost (flight crew, maintenance, hangar space, fuel, landing fees, food, champagne, etc.): $10-50+ million per year.
This has been done. The king of Saudi Arabia has one. The US President has two.
A pittance. If you want to get into the really big money, you need to think big - Ocean oil platforms, supertankers, skyscrapers.
Or you could buy yourself a sports team. More than one wag has claimed that sports teams are toys for the wealthiest of the wealthy.
Along those same lines, you could buy Tiger Wood’s endorsement contract for a quarter billion or so.
Hmmm . . . If you relent on your “take home” restriction, you could buy a trip into space for a few million.
What about getting a jeweller to make something ridiculously expensive?
How about encrusting your bed in millions of diamonds or replacing the floorboards with sold gold?
Austin Powers “And I want a solid gold toilet baby but it’s just not on the cards now is it?” /Austin Powers
You could always buy yourself an army. Starting a war is a very popular way to waste money.
You could buy my presence… But $500m ain’t gonna cut it mate… Plus the first class flight out of Australia…
That’s $500,000, not the OP bid of $500,000,000… that’s a drop in the bucket.
So you wanna blow it all on one thing, huh, justin?
Too bad you said “no” to Real Estate., because my first thought was to buy either an island, skyscraper or sports stadium (the Staples Center in L.A. cost $400M)
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Buy a company.
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Custom-ordering anything you wish would be the other way to go (like the 747 mentioned earlier… but maybe get the boys at Boeing to put some VTOL jets on it…, or a really big yacht. Really big. Like QE2 big) or getting yourself four jet fighters (F-22s):
http://www.lexingtoninstitute.org/defense/pdf/LTIB1.19.pdf -
How about picking a car company (like Bentley or Ferrari), cutting a deal with htem where you spend the money on R&D of a new model of car that will have your name on it.
“The 2003 Mercedes Benz SC 600 Justin” -
Or a few grams of Californuim-252:
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a1_329a.html -
Or set up a one-time only personal party by flying all of your friends and family to a rented island for a weekend and hire the Rolling Stones, Paul Oakenfold, Barbra Streisand, U2, Garth Brooks (or whatever’s your flavour) to do the music for you for a weekend-long concert.
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Or set up something kinda wacky for yourself, $70M seems to be the price for campaiging for office in New York:
http://www.opensecrets.org/2000elect/storysofar/topraces.asp?display=currcands -
Titanic cost $200M to produce… you could produce two and a half movies of that calibre.
But it seems to me you’re looking for something that’s on the market right now that someone wants to sell valued at up to $500 M.
To the best of my knowledge, there is no single item on the market (other than Real Estate) that is worth [Dr. Evil voice with pinky in mouth]Five hundred million dollars[/Dr. Evil voice with pinky in mouth]
I think communication satellites are one of the most expensive things that can be called “products.” I believe a top of the line communications satellite can easily cost $500 million. Take a look at the Boeing Satellite Systems home page, for example - you can see a list of their products (but no prices). The 702 is their top of the line model.
A search for “most expensive” on the Guinness Book of Records site yields, among other things:
Most expensive car: Bugatti Royale Type 41 Sports Coupe, $15 million
Animal: Seattle Dancer (racehorse), $13.1 m.
Watch: Gianni Vivé Sulman (London), $520,000
Wine: Chateau d’Yquem 1787, $64,000
Please don’t.
I think the “personal 747 jumbo jet” is winning so far.
I was going to jokingly suggest “buy a politician”,
but then I realized that our politicians are so corrupt
that they wouldn’t be expensive. Anyone know what Dubya’s
campaign cost? I bet it was close to 500 mil.
You, too, can own the most powerful country on the planet! Feel the thrill as your finger rests on the nuclear trigger! Pass inane legislation on a whim! Award your friends multi-million dollar government contracts! Play fast and loose with the environment!
(I wish I was making this shit up…)
-Ben
invest the 500 mill, save it for a while, let it double, and buy a Trident nuclear submarine (sans the missiles as they probably wouldn’t let you have those… gotta buy those from the middle-east or russia). I think that would be the ultimate.