It’s not a name all too familiar to many, unlike Babe Ruth or Lou Gehrig, but Wagner’s baseball card is the rarest in existence. His 1909 to 1911 card sold for $3.12 Million.

Only 57-60 copies are known to exist.

The card was designed and issued by the American Tobacco Company. Wagner opposed smoking and didn’t receive anything for having his face on the card, so production ceased making the card extremely rare and valuable.

It was a time when literacy was a luxury for the rich and powerful since books were made literally by hand. Copies were handwritten which were time and labor intensive.

The Gutenberg press changed the tide, and its first production in 1456 was a bible.

Only 28 copies remain, and not all of them are in great condition. You can find them in respectable institutions like the Library Of Congress. They are so valuable a single page can go for $25,000. A complete first edition can fetch $35 Million.

It’s a coin that’s worth millions. This is the 1933 20-dollar Double Eagle, which was the most expensive ever sold at an auction. It sold for a staggering $18.9 million.

First minted in 1907, the coin features an image of Lady Liberty striding forward on its obverse and an eagle in flight on its reverse.

All other coins are in the possession of the US government. The Secret Service pursues newly discovered coins.

William Shakespeare needs no introduction and yet his personal life remains mostly a mystery. His works have transcended time, and even schools require their students to read his works.

With only 6 surviving signatures, each one is valued at $3-Million or more.

The scarcity of signatures only adds to the myth that was William Shakespeare.

A very rare borate mineral, Painite was discovered in Myanmar by British mineralogist and gem dealer Arthur C.D. Pain. He misidentified it as ruby, until it was confirmed to be a new gemstone in the 1950s.

It contains calcium, zirconium, boron, aluminium and oxygen. The gem is considered rare due to the fact that zirconium and boron rarely interact with each other in nature.

Painite can cost in the range of between US$50,000 to $60,000 per carat.

Arguably one of the most beloved superheroes ever, Spiderman was created by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko as a filler for cancelled stories. The teenager turned hero by accident found fame and soon, more comics were made.

Amazing Fantasy #15 brings in a lot of cash. An example at an auction once sold for $454,100 while a mint condition copy was sold for $1.1 Million.

It was in 1855 when Sweden issued its first postage stamps ranging from 3 to 24 Swedish skillings. The three-skilling stamp was printed in a blue-green color, while eight-skilling stamps were printed in yellowish orange.

No one knows how but an eight-skilling printing plate was mistakenly replaced with a three-skilling. The new 3 skillings were printed in yellowish orange which went unnoticed.

They are so rare that stamps were sold from a little over a million to $2.8 Million at auctions.

Levi Strauss (1829–1902), a Bavarian immigrant who arrived in San Francisco in 1850 during the Gold Rush, brought dry goods for sale to miners. When he heard of the miners’ need for durable pants, Strauss hired a tailor to make garments out of tent canvas.

Denim was later substituted with copper for the seams. The pants proved so popular that Strauss became a very rich man.

Levi’s 501 jeans were so durable that an original pair from over 115 years ago was bought by a Japanese collector for $60,000.

On Dec. 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman asked John Lennon to sing a copy of “Double Fantasy”. As Lennon signed Chapman’s copy of the album, the latter shot the former Beatles member. The copy of the album was used as evidence since it had Chapman’s fingerprints.

That particular copy was later sold for $460,000.

The Sorraia is the last remnant of the indigenous wild horse of southern Iberia. They are the primary ancestor of the famous horses of Andalusia and Lusitania. There are drawings of these horses in prehistoric cave art found in the old-time North African Barb. The Portuguese scientist Ruy D’ Andrade discovered them in 1920 in the lowlands of the Portuguese River Sorraia. He named them, “Sorraia”.

They are nearly extinct with a few herds maintained in a few places like Portugal and Germany.

The Sorraia can survive harsh climates, especially dry, hot ones. They can live on little forage, while their hardiness, agility, and ability to collect and work in the bridle made them highly valuable to local stockmen.

In 2003, Harrods department store in London unveiled a diamond necklace valued at around £10 million ($16 million US). They hoped it would sell as a Christmas present.

The necklace attracted a bid of $10 million. It is built around the Blue Empress, a rare blue pear-shaped diamond, and it weighs around 14 carats.

The necklace itself is made from 18K white gold with a number of smaller round white diamonds. It is part of a unique collection of 11 blue diamonds mounted in settings from Los Angeles-based designer Christian Tse.

This bottle of wine was produced in the vineyards of the Rothschilds in the south of France. Publisher Malcom Forbes once paid $160,000 for a bottle.

This Bordeaux, a 1787 Chateau Lafite, is still the world’s most expensive bottle of wine. The initials Th.J. were etched in the glass which means it had belonged to Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States and one of the most revered of its founding fathers.

A couple thought it was just some ordinary vase among their kitchen ware but an expert determined it was from the Ming Dynasty. It dates from the 15th Century and the imperial vase went for $22.6 Million. Very few of these vases exist in good condition.

It was initially known as Swallow Nest. Bird’s Nest was first used in China more than 1,500 years ago during the Tang Dynasty. It was also in the Chinese Medicine Book which contained healthy foods.

A bowl for one person can cost up to $35, while sharing sizes can reach up to $130.

It’s expensive because when a swiftlet’s nest is partially dissolved, it produces a gelatinous mixture. They only build nests thrice a year on walls and cliff sides, the same place they raise their young. The nests make the soup and other delicacies pricey.

Learn more details in this very interesting video.