Toys of the Rich Did you ever wonder if you were ultra-rich what toys you might like to buy? You would be surprised about some of the things which are purchased by these people. Sometimes their toys are meant to be bigger than their associates toys, other times they are meant to be more expensive. Some of the ultra-rich inherited their money while others made it. The ones who made it probably purchase some of their toys to fulfill childhood dreams. We know houses play a big part or should I say estates in this case. The whole idea is to have a house which is far bigger and more luxurious than anyone else and then to hold parties in it so you can show it off to everyone else. The most expensive house for sale in the United States as of the writing of this article was a house in Bel Air, Los Angeles. It is for sale today at the astronomical price of $250,000,000. I would’ve thought the house would have been located in a different area, although Bel Air is known to have some of the most expensive housing. The house is a 38,000 foot mansion and has the honor of being the most expensive house ever listed. I have to wonder how many houses the size of the one I live in would fit into this place. The house was built by Bruce Markowsky a luxury developer. I guess the next thing would be to see who has the most expensive boat, or should I say ship. The most expensive yacht is an incredible 4.5 billion dollars. Nothing even comes near it in price. The ship was commissioned by Stewart Hughes for an anonymous Malaysian businessman. It is hard to believe, but this yacht cost as much as some of the aircraft carriers the United States has built and to think a private individual would have this kind of money to spend on something like this boggles the mind. The yacht contains 100,000 kg of solid gold and platinum. All the features of the yacht including the deck, dining area, rails, anchor are made from precious metals. Even the base of the yacht is wrapped in gold. Some of the walls were created using material from meteors and also contain the bones of a genuine T Rex dinosaur. Moving on, the next logical place to look at would be ultra–expensive cars. Business Insider lists the most expensive car ever sold as a 1952 Ferrari 250 GTO. It sold in 2014 for $33,115,000. It was one of only thirty-nine Ferrari GTO’s ever produced and it had a unique history as it was a legendary racing car which had been in a fatal crash and then restored. It is noteworthy that of the fifty most expensive cars ever sold at auctions thirty were Ferraris and eighteen of these Ferraris were of the 250 series. There are some claims this car had actually sold for four million dollars more and others which state when you include the buyer’s premium price it actually sold for $38,115,000. While this is the highest price ever paid at a car auction other cars have sold for more and these include cars such as Rolls-Royce cars encrusted with diamonds and sold to Arab princes. Sorry but I don’t know who bought the Ferrari 250 GTO. If you are among the ultra-rich having a plane is a must. You don’t want just any old plane, what you want is the most luxurious and expensive plane you can purchase, so you can show your friends how well-off your are. It is claimed the Airbus A3180 the world’s largest passenger airline in the largest flying machine money can buy. The plane costs $400,000,000 and it is the choice of people like Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal. Once his plane was customized it brought the price up to well over one half a billion dollars. The prince's plane has a concert hall, a Turkish bath, a garage for his Rolls-Royce and his own private prayer room with electronic mats which automatically rotate to face Mecca. I have to admit reading about this stuff is starting to make me feel poor. Aside from what I call standard rich toys, there are other things I haven’t mentioned yet and I thought it might be interesting to look at some of them. If you are among the ultra-rich you might desire to belong to the most expensive golf club, because this would keep out the riffraff. You would probably want to join the Liberty National golf club in New Jersey. You can join this club for the chicken feed amount of only approximately $300,000. I guess I won’t be joining anytime soon, it’s lucky for me I don’t like golf. Since we are talking about golf and you have money to burn why not travel around in the Gotham golf cart? It is far cheaper than the other things we discussed at only $28,500 and not very many other rich people will have one, but this may not be because they envy you, it might be because they are not a fan of Batman. If you are one of the young ultra-rich you might decide it’s time to buy a jet pack. For the piddling price about $200,000 you can be the envy of your friends, or maybe not. It just so happens this amount of money was said to be the average income of a well-to-do middle class family in the United States in 2014. The great part about being ultra-rich is you can afford to buy the best video games and video equipment. For only $185,000 you can be the proud owner of the most realistic driving simulator in the world. The simulator has an actual race car seat and it’s on a chassis that can roll, pitch and rotate 360°. If you hit the brake in the simulator the chassis noses down and if you hit the gas pedal the chassis moves forward. The simulator comes with twelve different race cars programmed into it and a number of different tracks. Many of us want the ultimate sound system but multimillionaires and billionaires can purchase a system which puts anything we buy to shame and it is only $385,000. The system is Goldmund’s Logos Anatta. It is said to be a great sound system, but I would think so at this astronomical price. The system has three speakers and stands five and half feet. It is made out of high quality steel, ultra-rigid brass rhodium and some gold. There are plenty of other toys out there and one has to wonder is it the price that attracts the ultra-rich or is it really the quality of what they buy? Is it a game of I paid more than you did? |