Tangled myself up in the title on this one. Some examples will show you what I mean:
*From my days in collecting baseball cards I remember that the king of all cards you could get was the infamous Honus Wagner tobacco card.
*In the field of luxury cars, you’re probably looking at the Rolls-Royce Phantom as the top of the line.
*In electric guitars, how about a 1959 Les Paul.
Of course there will be some disagreement on what’s at the top, but your choice should:
a) Be considered by many to be the top of the field, and considered by all to be at least top 5 (10?)
b) It need not be the most expensive item (certainly you can make one of those by just jamming diamonds and jewels into it like those “luxury” USB thumb drives).
c) Have a certain “iconic” status among people in the field/hobby.
d) Be somewhat rare, only in the sense that you don’t see them that often – not necessarily that there are only a few in existence.
Think of this kind of like the extravagent billionaire who has “the best of everything”. I know that if you or I had serious money we’d just buy the stuff we personally like the best. But I’m talking about the person who wants to make a statement.
Category suggestions: wrist watch, computer, stereo/speakers, television, paintings/art, dishwasher, wine, etc. etc.
The most valuable magic card (aside from a few unique one-off promos) is a Black Lotus. I just found a mint alpha Black Lotus selling for $1800 on EBay. Yikes.
In the world of Prestigitation, there are quite a few of these sort of things, usually grouped into the type of magic you are looking to perform.
For all-around magic, the best books to get is the “Tarbell Course in Magic” series, Vol 1-8. Considered by everyone in magic as the best all around resource for magicians.
When it comes to the sub types of magic we have the following resources that are considered the best:
Card magic: “Card College” series
Coin magic: “Modern Coin Magic” by Bobo
Cups and Balls: “The Dai Vernon Book of Magic” by Dai Vernon
Rope magic: “Abbott’s Encyclopedia of Rope Magic” vols 1 and 2.
Card production and manipulation: “The Art of Card Manipulation” vols 1,2,and 3 by Jeff McBride.
Magic Showmanship, presentation and routining: “Showmanship for Magicians”, "The Trick
Brain", and “Magic by Misdirection” all by Darrel Fitzkee
For bikers, a knucklehead is the obvious choice(though no one would kick an Indian Chief to the curb.)
A close second is a 1965 panhead:[ul][li]Last year panhead[/li][li]First year Electra Glide[/li][li]One of three years for external oiler panheads[/li][li](I believe) first year for five gallon fatbob tanks.[/ul][/li]Guess which year I was born.
For a non-celebrity-owned electric, a sunburst '59 is currently going for close to $300,000 if it has a nicely figured flame maple top.
For celebrity owned guitars:
Peter Green’s Les Paul (he started Fleetwood Mac and is considered a truly amazing Brit blues guitarist before becoming an acid casualty) is currently on the market for $2million
Jerry Garcia’s handmade guitars - Tiger is one and the other was named for another animal (sorry, I never found him all that great) sold for close to $1million each.
Clapton’s Blackie (a Parts-o-Caster that was his main guitar for over 20 years) just sold for close to $1million. His first great electric - a cherry Gibson ES 335 that he used with the Yardbirds, also sold for a ton, as did the Martin acoustic he used for the Unplugged recordings.
If a true gigged Hendrix guitar or Jimmy Page’s Les Pauls or something of equally legendary status came up, I would even want to guess…
As for First Editions - in th 20th Century only
a 1st edition of Ulysses - of 1,000 copies in the first print run, I think 100 were the most fancy, then 150 next fanciest then finally 750 normal - determined by quality of paper, binding, etct - well, the first 100 would go for a few hundred thousand dollars each.
a first of The Great Gatby these days is getting close to $200,000 and signed, fergettaboudit
for the 2nd half of the 20th century, you’d probably look at To Kill a Mockingbird and a few others, including Casino Royale (the first Bond book by Ian Fleming) and the first UK of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone…
I’ve been a stereo buff for 35 years or so. Back in the day, there wasn’t much better audio you could hear than through a McIntosh preamp, tuner and power amp. I’ve heard this combination in a couple of stereo shops (remember them?), with a Nakamichi cassette deck and an Empire turntable. Mac made their own speakers, too, but I’ve only seen them in brochures. I just looked them up, and the company is still in business. That would mean that they are still making and selling state-of-the-art audio equipment for people who can afford to buy it. I haven’t ever met anyone who could afford to buy it! But boy, it’s worth the loot. Now they make even more drool-worthy gear, like SACD players and 2000 watt, tri-chassis monoblock power amps (you need two of these). No mention of the price of an all-McIntosh system, but think in terms of Ferrari for comparison, especially if you add their speakers. Have a look at this stuff! Click on the link that says “Dare To Dream.” That system is beyond the reach of mere mortals.
There’s also the ELP laser turntable for the rich person who owns a lot of records. It’s only $15,000 to start. Damn, I will never own one of these. Double damn. I sure want one, though.
They’re not uncommon, but the eleventh (1911) edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica is particularly fine. Does that count? (I love to take mine into the bathroom with me.)
In comic books, Spiderman #1. I understand it was a throwaway, written only to give Marvel the copyright.
In musical theatre, the Jeeves LP. Only a few were made and never released. I paid $250 for mine. I know someone who found a pristine, unopened one in a used record store for $60! Second is the double-Dutch CATS LP, which was only sold in the theatre. After a group of us looked for it for YEARS, someone got it in a used record store for $7!!!
Good answers everyone. Right on target as far as I can tell. I guess we should exempt celebrity-owned items, though, since by definition there’s really only one in existence. So another caveat should be – only general production items. The yacht built specifically for the Sultan of Swing doesn’t really count. In other words, one couldn’t just look through a list of the most expensive items – you’d have to actually know about what was the “holy grail” in a given field.
And that’s Alpha. Beta cards generally sell for more. There’s a Mint Beta Black Lotus going for $2400 right now on eBay. It’s a good card of course, but I can’t imagine paying nearly that much for a single.