Showing posts with label Expensive. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Expensive. Show all posts

Sunday, December 13, 2009

World's Most Expensive Thing's Around You....

World's Most Expensive Car ($12.15 million)

A 1957 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa was sold at 9.02 million euros ($12.15 million) at an auction, setting a new world record for the most expensive car ever sold at auction, according to RM Auctions, which organized the event. It was stated that the price -which includes a 10 percent buyer's premium on top of the "hammer price-" is nearly 2 million euros more than the previous record set at a similarauction at Ferrari's headquarters a year ago.

Only 22 Scaglietti-designed Testa Rossas with the signature pontoon fenders were built by Ferrari between 1957 and 1958. It was a formidable racer - a 300 horsepower V12 and nimble handling will do that - and Testa Rossas won 10 of the 19 races they entered between 1958 and 1961.

(Link)





World's Most Expensive Guitar ($2.8 million)

A signed Fender Standard Series Stratocaster has become the world's most expensive guitar, fetching a massive $2.8 million at auction in Doha, Qatar. The musical instrument, auctioned to aid victims of the 2004 tsunami disaster, broke the previous record held by Eric Clapton's $959,500.00 Black Strat. According to the Fender website, "the idea started when Fender Europe's Jamie Crompton contacted Bryan Adams to see how people from the music industry could reach out to help the victims of such a devastating natural disaster. Bryan got his phone book out and rang nineteen of rock's most treasured artists to sign a Standard Series Fender Stratocaster guitar, donated by Jamie and Fender Europe."

Some of the artists who signed on it are Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Bryan Adams, Keith Richards, Paul McCartney and Sting.

(Link)





World's Most Expensive iPhone ($3.2 million)

The world's most expensive iPhone costs £1.92 million ($3.2-million) and it was produced by a British designer. The exclusive iPhone 3GS Supreme - featuring almost 200 diamonds- is made up of a casing created using 271 grams of 22 carats solid gold. The front bezel houses 136 flawless diamonds totaling a massive 68 carats, while the Apple logo on the back is made from a further 53 gems. The front navigation button is made from a single diamond of more than seven carats. (Link)



World's Most Expensive Home ($150 million)

Updown Court is currently the most expensive residence in the world, costing about $50 million more than the priciest U.S. home - more than 85 million British pounds (+$ 150 million USD). The brand-new property is totally over the top, with 103 rooms, five swimming pools and 24-carat-gold leafing on the study's mosaic floor. There's a squash court, bowling alley, tennis court, 50-seat screening room, heated marble driveway and helipad. Eight limousines will fit in the underground garage. Then there are the neighbors, who include the queen (at Windsor Castle) and Elton John. It is listed with Savills and Hamptons International. So, even if your blood doesn't run blue, with enough green you can still live near—and like—royalty! (Link 1 | Link 2)





World's Most Expensive Christmas Drink ($210,000)

Beaute de Siecle, the Hennessy's new limited edition cognac costs £105,000 (about $210,000 ) a bottle. The most expensive drink in the world is just 100 bottles in existence and was created to celebrate the 100th birthday of Killian Hennessy, the sixth generation descendant of the company's founder.



The cognac itself is in a Baccarat crystal bottle contained in an ornate wooden chest embedded with mirrored glass and meted aluminium. A bronze key opens the box which then triggers a concealed switch to make the bottle rise up on a velvet tray. The drink itself is blended by Hennessy's cellar master Yann Fillioux from reserve cognacs between 50 and 100 years old. (Link)





World's Most Expensive Wedding Dress ($12 million)

The most expensive wedding dress in the world to date is the USD $12 million creation, known as The Diamond Wedding Gown, which was the result of collaboration between Renee Strauss (owner of a super successful, wedding salon in Beverley Hills) and Martin Katz, a rare jewel dealer. The dress itself uses over 150 carats of diamonds and to give you an idea of what this means, the typical engagement ring rarely hits a full carat and hovers around the half-carat mark.



The Diamond Wedding Gown was premiered in 2008 and took the title of the most expensive wedding dress in the world from a design by Yumi Katsura of Japan. Her creation followed the same traditional white design as The Diamond Wedding Gown, but came in at a paltry USD $8.5 million though it does lay claim to containing over 1,000 pearls and one of only two 5 carat white gold diamonds in the world. (Link)





World's Most Expensive Dog ($582,000)

It sounds like a shaggy dog story, but it isn't. A Tibetan Mastiff is believed to have broken the record as the world's most expensive dog — sold to a young Chinese millionaire for a mind-blowing $582,000 in September 2009. The owner, known only as Ms. Wang, traveled to Qinghai province of northwest China to purchase the 18-month old dog, named Yangtze River Number Two. Yangtze came home to an A-List entrance at Xi'an airport in China's Shaanxi province, where he was reportedly greeted by hordes of dog lovers and picked up by a motorcade of 30 black Mercedes-Benz cars. (Link)





World's Most Expensive Hamburger ($200)

In 2008 Burger King, the fast-food giant, launched a $200 burger in the name of charity. Setting a new record, the world's most expensive burger is available at just one restaurant in West London, England, once a week — but it will eventually be available to order via a hotline.



The fine ingredients of what is called simply 'The Burger' include Wagyu beef, white truffles, Pata Negra ham slices, Cristal onion straws, Modena balsamic vinegar, lambs lettuce, pink Himalayan rock salt, organic white wine and shallot infused mayonnaise in an Iranian saffron and white truffle dusted bun. (Link)





World's Most Expensive Baseball Card ($2.8 million)

Known as “Mona Lisa” among the variety of baseball cards, T206 Honus Wagner card is the only desire of the baseball card collectors. This extraordinary card is lately sold at a record-breaking cost of $2.8 million against its earlier sale of $2.35 million around six-months back. This smoking price of the card has beaten the record cost of the top 27 cards sold till date at publicauction. The auction of the card got over last week only. The T206 baseball card features Wagner in his teens clad in Pittsburgh Pirates uniform. Production of baseball cards dates back to decades ago. But what is so special about T206 Honus Wagner cards that helped them tout as the most-expensive baseball card ever?

In the primitive period, these cards were produced by tobacco companies and used to feature cigarette. In 1909, Honus Wagner was amongst the reknowned global shortstops who did not want to promote smoking and thus he produced this card. Only 50-60 samples are expected to exist and out of which few of them are in mint condition. Some years ago (July 2000), this card was owned by Bruce McNall and Wayne Gretzky and was sold on eBay to an anonymous Southern California collector for a smoking $1.27. (Link)





World's Most Expensive Suit ($103,000)

What would fit with the world's most expensive wedding dress? The world's most expensive suit of course! Unveiled today in Pall Mall, London, the "Alexander Amosu," named after the designer himself, could be yours for just over $100,000. Each suit will be a one-off creation made from gold and platinum threads, the rarest silks and a blend of Himalayan Pashmina, Qiviuk and Vicuna. And, to complete the garment, nine 18-carat gold and pave set diamond buttons will be sewn into place. The triple-figure price tag includes hyperbolic levels of customer service: Alexander and his tailors will travel to clients anywhere in the world to take measurements and fit the suits. (Link)





World's Most Expensive Jeans ($27,000)

Putting on one of the most successful art shows of all-time last year and the highest grossing contemporary living artists of all-time, artist Damien Hirst has brought forth a certain style to his definition of art. Bold and brash, he teams up with Levi's on the release of a new denim style. Hardly wearable, the jeans seen here should be considered much more a re-appropriated piece of art than fashion. A multi-colored splatter pattern covers every square inch of a pair of iconic Levi's denim. The Spin Jeans comprise of only 8 instances worldwide with a suggested retail price of ¥2,625,000 JPY (approximately $27,000 USD).


Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Top 10 Most Expensive Accidents in History

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Throughout history, humans have always been prone to accidents. Our aim is to list the top 10 most expensive accidents in the history of the world as measured in dollars.
This includes property damage and expenses incurred related to the accident such as cleanup and industry losses. Many of these accidents involve casualties which obviously cannot be measured in dollar terms. Each life lost is priceless and is not factored into the equation. Deliberate actions such as war or terrorism and natural disasters do not qualify as accidents and therefore are not included in this list.

10. Titanic $150 Million

The sinking of the Titanic is possibly the most famous accident in the world. But it barely makes our list of top 10 most expensive. On April 15, 1912, the Titanic sank on its maiden voyage and was considered to be the most luxurious ocean liner ever built. Over 1,500 people lost their lives when the ship ran into an iceberg and sunk in frigid waters. The ship cost $7 million to build ($150 million in today’s dollars).

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9. Tanker Truck vs Bridge $358 Million

On August 26, 2004, a car collided with a tanker truck containing 32,000 liters of fuel on the Wiehltal Bridge in Germany. The tanker crashed through the guardrail and fell 90 feet off the A4 Autobahn resulting in a huge explosion and fire which destroyed the load-bearing ability of the bridge. Temporary repairs cost $40 million and the cost to replace the bridge is estimated at $318 Million.

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8. MetroLink Crash $500 Million

On September 12, 2008, in what was one of the worst train crashes in California history, 25 people were killed when a Metrolink commuter train crashed head-on into a Union Pacific freight train in Los Angeles. It is thought that the Metrolink train may have run through a red signal while the conductor was busy text messaging. Wrongful death lawsuits are expected to cause $500 million in losses for Metrolink.

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7. B-2 Bomber Crash $1.4 Billion

Here we have our first billion dollar accident (and we’re only #7 on the list). This B-2 stealth bomber crashed shortly after taking off from an air base in Guam on February 23, 2008. Investigators blamed distorted data in the flight control computers caused by moisture in the system. This resulted in the aircraft making a sudden nose-up move which made the B-2 stall and crash. This was 1 of only 21 ever built and was the most expensive aviation accident in history. Both pilots were able to eject to safety.

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6. Exxon Valde $2.5 Billion

The Exxon Valdez oil spill was not a large one in relation to the world’s biggest oil spills, but it was a costly one due to the remote location of Prince William Sound (accessible only by helicopter and boat). On March 24, 1989, 10.8 million gallons of oil was spilled when the ship’s master, Joseph Hazelwood, left the controls and the ship crashed into a Reef. The cleanup cost Exxon $2.5 billion.

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5. Piper Alpha Oil Rig $3.4 Billion

The world’s worst off-shore oil disaster. At one time, it was the world’s single largest oil producer, spewing out 317,000 barrels of oil per day. On July 6, 1988, as part of routine maintenance, technicians removed and checked safety valves which were essential in preventing dangerous build-up of liquid gas. There were 100 identical safety valves which were checked. Unfortunately, the technicians made a mistake and forgot to replace one of them. At 10 PM that same night, a technician pressed a start button for the liquid gas pumps and the world’s most expensive oil rig accident was set in motion.
Within 2 hours, the 300 foot platform was engulfed in flames. It eventually collapsed, killing 167 workers and resulting in $3.4 Billion in damages.

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4. Challenger Explosion $5.5 Billion

The Space Shuttle Challenger was destroyed 73 seconds after takeoff due on January 28, 1986 due to a faulty O-ring. It failed to seal one of the joints, allowing pressurized gas to reach the outside. This in turn caused the external tank to dump its payload of liquid hydrogen causing a massive explosion. The cost of replacing the Space Shuttle was $2 billion in 1986 ($4.5 billion in today’s dollars). The cost of investigation, problem correction, and replacement of lost equipment cost $450 million from 1986-1987 ($1 Billion in today’s dollars).

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3. Prestige Oil Spill $12 Billion

On November 13, 2002, the Prestige oil tanker was carrying 77,000 tons of heavy fuel oil when one of its twelve tanks burst during a storm off Galicia, Spain. Fearing that the ship would sink, the captain called for help from Spanish rescue workers, expecting them to take the ship into harbour. However, pressure from local authorities forced the captain to steer the ship away from the coast. The captain tried to get help from the French and Portuguese authorities, but they too ordered the ship away from their shores. The storm eventually took its toll on the ship resulting in the tanker splitting in half and releasing 20 million gallons oil into the sea.
According to a report by the Pontevedra Economist Board, the total cleanup cost $12 billion.

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2. Space Shuttle Columbia $13 Billion

The Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space worthy shuttle in NASA’s orbital fleet. It was destroyed during re-entry over Texas on February 1, 2003 after a hole was punctured in one of the wings during launch 16 days earlier. The original cost of the shuttle was $2 Billion in 1978. That comes out to $6.3 Billion in today’s dollars. $500 million was spent on the investigation, making it the costliest aircraft accident investigation in history. The search and recovery of debris cost $300 million.
In the end, the total cost of the accident (not including replacement of the shuttle) came out to $13 Billion according to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

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1. Chernobyl $200 Billion

On April 26, 1986, the world witnessed the costliest accident in history. The Chernobyl disaster has been called the biggest socio-economic catastrophe in peacetime history. 50% of the area of Ukraine is in some way contaminated. Over 200,000 people had to be evacuated and resettled while 1.7 million people were directly affected by the disaster. The death toll attributed to Chernobyl, including people who died from cancer years later, is estimated at 125,000. The total costs including cleanup, resettlement, and compensation to victims has been estimated to be roughly $200 Billion. The cost of a new steel shelter for the Chernobyl nuclear plant will cost $2 billion alone. The accident was officially attributed to power plant operators who violated plant procedures and were ignorant of the safety requirements needed.

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