# What's the cheapest thing you can buy one million of? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 29, 2023, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316 "2023-08-29T23:02:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316/101 "2023-09-22T22:51:56Z")
Really? Maybe I’m missing something, but can you order 1 million [something] and have them send that to you, as opposed to, say 900,000 of that same [something]? ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316/102 "2023-09-22T23:06:46Z")
I’m not sure who you are responding to, but for resistors, you can absolutely order exactly a million of them. One of the highest stocked resistors at Digikey can only be ordered in multiples of 100,000, in fact: [![](https://i.imgur.com/b2sihAg.png) ](https://i.imgur.com/b2sihAg.png) You can get the same resistor in single units, though. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Strangelove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr.strangelove/32/6613_2.png) [@Dr.Strangelove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Strangelove)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316/103 "2023-09-22T23:10:41Z")
And remarkably, Digikey carries over a million _different types of resistor_. You could order one of each and have a million distinct manufactured objects. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2023, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316/104 "2023-09-22T23:17:13Z")
Right. But, think of how many Akro bins you would need to store them! [![](https://images.thdstatic.com/productImages/a34bd723-d555-4290-8928-b17916f49906/svn/black-clarified-drawers-akro-mils-shelf-bins-racks-10164-64_300.jpg) ](https://images.thdstatic.com/productImages/a34bd723-d555-4290-8928-b17916f49906/svn/black-clarified-drawers-akro-mils-shelf-bins-racks-10164-64_300.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2023, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316/105 "2023-09-23T00:10:07Z")
But then, how is that cheaper than staples? Or is it the fact you can only buy staples and multiple staples, rather than individually? ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2023, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316/106 "2023-09-23T00:17:17Z")
Yes. You can’t go to a store and ask for “a staple." ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2023, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316/107 "2023-09-23T00:26:51Z")
All right. A different reading of the OP than mine, but understandable one. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316/108 "2023-09-23T18:24:30Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Resistors? Is useless! > > More seriously, this seems the best answer so far. Depends who’s ordering. I assume it’s not unusual for a computer maker to order, say, a million memory chips for the factory. And… you can buy one of them by itself. During the run-up in silver prices, much of the Canadian silver coinage (dimes and quarters) dsiappeared from circulation. I have a small collection of silver coins that I hoarded every time I ran across one in the last few decades. Apparently during the high, people were melting silver down - which was illegal. So there was the loophole that it was not illegal to melt Canadian coins in the USA, but border guard would turn back anyone tryng to enter the USA with a large collection of Canadian coins. One article described a border guard commenting on the fellow who hid a large bag of coins in the engine compartment, but it broke on the way - leaving a silver trail of coins across the bridge in Niagara Falls… and back to the Canadian side. ---
**Author:** ![Kelevra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/97f17d/32.png) [@Kelevra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kelevra)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2023, 2:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316/109 "2023-09-26T14:42:45Z")
The company Paperworks used to sell a box of 100 paper clips for $0.01. Not sure if they still do (it was a loss-leader). So $10,000 for a million boxes or $100 for a million paper clips. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-cheapest-thing-you-can-buy-one-million-of/989316.md?page=5)