Meet Rope Daddy, a Special French Bulldog Specimen Valued at $120,000

Rope Daddy is an exceptional specimen of Big Rope, one of the most sought-after varieties of French Bulldog, whose enviable genetic traits allegedly make him worth around $120,000.

According to a study by the American Kennel Club (AKC), the global number of French bulldogs has increased by over 1,000% in the last decade, helping the canine breed dethrone the Golden Retriever as the world’s most popular dog breed. However, this overnight popularity has caused the degradation of the breed’s genetic structure, resulting in thinner, longer, and taller dogs, all of which are considered undesired traits. The Big Rope variety is characterized by a small, compact, and muscular body, and a large, square head, making it among the most coveted among French bulldog fans. But even among other Big Rope specimens, one pooch stands out as exceptional thanks to its excellent genetic material. His name is Rope Daddy and he is probably the world’s most expensive French bulldog.

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Russian Company Creates the World’s Most Expensive Custom iPhone Ever

Caviar, a Russian company that specializes in luxurious smartphone customization, recently unveiled the iPhone Diamond Snowflake, the most expensive iPhone ever made.

The iPhone 15 hasn’t even been launched yet, and it’s already advertised as the most expensive iPhone ever made. Not the stock version, though! That one is expensive enough, but it’s nowhere near the Diamond Snowflake designed by Russian luxury customization company, Caviar. This uber-exclusive version of Apple’s newest handheld features a custom case made of 18K white gold and inlaid with no less than 570 individual diamonds, as well the pendant of the Snowflake Graff necklace made by famed English jeweler Graff. The pendant itself is made of platinum, white gold with inlaid diamonds. The price of this handmade masterpiece – a whopping $562,700.

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This Is the World’s Most Expensive Piece of Cheese

A Spanish restaurant recently paid 30,000 euros ($32,800) for a 2.2kg (4.85 lbs) piece of handmade cheese, thus setting a new world record for the most expensive piece of cheese.

Every year, in the last week of August, the town of Las Arenas de Cabrales hosts a contest where the best pieces of Cabrales cheese are auctioned off to the highest bidder. This year, Llagar de Colloto, a restaurant in Oviedo, Spain, paid a whopping 30,000 euros for a piece of Cabrales cheese made by hand from cow and goat milk and matured for several months in a cave in Los Picos de Europa mountains. Made by the Los Puertos cheese factory from Poo de Cabrales, the 2.2kg piece of cheese was selected by the jury as the best of the cheeses of fifteen producers who participated in the contest and was the most coveted in the subsequent auction.

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The “Beautiful Princess” of Strawberries Costs Up to $350 Per Piece

Bijin-Hime, aka ‘Beautiful Princess’, is a Japanese strawberry variety that is perfectly shaped and colored and offers an unmatched flavor. It also costs up to $350 a piece, making it one of the world’s most expensive fruits.

Developed by Mikio Okuda, a Japanese farmer with over 45 years of experience growing strawberries, over 15 years of trial and error, Bijin-Hime is one of the world’s most highly regarded strawberry varieties. The largest fruits are about the size of a tennis ball and weigh around 100 grams, but it’s not the size that makes the Beautiful Princess special. Well, actually, it is, but not in the way you expect. Generally, the larger a strawberry is, the less flavor and sweetness it has, but that is certainly not the case with Bijin-Hime strawberries. They are rated at 13 degrees Brix, which makes them considerably sweeter than the 10-degree Brix strawberry standard, and have a flavor reminiscent of roses.

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New World’s Most Expensive Ice Cream Is Made with White Truffles, Costs $6,700

Japanese luxury ice cream brand Cellato recently set a new Guinness record for the world’s most expensive ice cream with a decadent treat priced at a whopping 880,000 yen ($6,700) per portion.

On April 25, a Guinness World Records representative certified Byakuya, Cellato’s new protein-rich ice cream, as the most expensive in the world. It consists of a velvety base made with milk, two types of cheese, egg yolks, and sake leek, and is topped with Parmigiano cheese, white truffle, truffle oil, and gold leaf. The ‘highest grade’ gelato has a faint sweetness, complex taste, and a luxurious, smooth texture. It comes packaged in a stylish black box. It includes a hand-made metal spoon created by Takeuchi craftsmen in Fushimi, Kyoto, using techniques and materials used in the construction of temples and shrines. One 130ml Byakuya ice cream is currently available on the Cellato website for 880,000 yen ($6,700).

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This Old Stamp Is the World’s Most Expensive Object by Weight

It’s hard to believe that a humble stamp could be considered exorbitantly expensive, but at $8.5 million, this 1856 postage stamp is considered the world’s most expensive object by weight.

The world is full of valuable objects, from jewelry to rare artworks, but when it comes to value per gram, nothing even comes close to ‘The British Guiana One-Cent Black on Magenta’, a one-of-a-kind postage stamp that weighs just 40 milligrams but is valued at around $8.5 million. To put that into perspective, the average 0.2-carat diamond (which also weighs 40 milligrams) costs about $700, while the same amount of LSD costs around $5,000. There just isn’t an object that can compare to this ultra-rare stamp in terms of value per weight.

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World’s Most Expensive Drug Costs $3.5 Million Per Dose

Hemgenix, a single-dose cure for a form of the blood-clotting disorder hemophilia, recently set a new world record for the most expensive drug ever at a whopping $3.5 million per dose.

On Tuesday, The US Food and Drug Administration approved Hemgenix, a cutting-edge gene therapy designed to treat adults with hemophilia B, a serious genetic disorder in which people do not produce a critical protein needed to clot blood in case of bleeding. Until now, typical treatments required routine injections to maintain sufficient levels of the missing protein in patients, but thanks to Hemgenix, sufferers of hemophilia B require a single IV infusion to be cured forever. The only problem is that that single dose costs no less than $3.5 million, making Hemgenix the most expensive drug ever.

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Rome’s Villa Aurora – The Most Expensive House in the World

Located on a hill in the heart of Rome and featuring the only ceiling mural ever painted by the Italian Baroque old master Caravaggio, Villa Aurora is widely regarded as the world’s most expensive house.

The 30,000-square-foot, 16th-century villa is located a short walk from the famous Via Veneto, home to some of Rome’s best hotels, and close to the iconic Piazza di Spagna and the ancient Porta Pinciana. Originally a hunting lodge, the villa is all that remains of a 30-hectare complex owned by Italy’s Ludovisi noble family, who gave the country numerous diplomats, patrons of the arts, and even a Pope. Today, Villa Aurora finds itself at the heart of a legal battle and an Italian court has ruled that it should be sold at auction. Only the price set for the property is so high that no one seems interested in paying it.

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The World’s Most Expensive Yacht Allegedly Costs $4.8 Billion, But No One Has Ever Seen It

History Supreme, a super-yacht commissioned by a mysterious Malaysian billionaire and designed by controversial artist Stuart Hughes, is considered the world’s most expensive yacht, but most don’t even believe it exists.

The story of History Supreme is one of the weirdest we’ve ever covered here on Oddity Central. It originally made news headlines over a decade ago, when luxury jeweler and designer Stuart Hughes announced that he had spent three years working on it, after being commissioned by a Malaysian businessman who preferred to remain anonymous. Hughes described his newest creation as the world’s most expensive yacht, priced at a staggering £3 million, or $4.8 billion. Photos of the vessel started doing the rounds online and news outlets covered the topic extensively, but no one has ever seen the History Supreme in person…

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Korean Bamboo Salt – Making the World’s Most Expensive Salt Can Take up to 50 Days

Korean Bamboo Salt is a luxury product that can cost over $100 per 8.5-ounce (240g) jar. The price is mostly dictated by the laborious process of making it, which involves roasting it 9 times in bamboo cylinders.

If you thought pink Himalayan salt was expensive, you probably haven’t heard of actual luxury salt varieties. There are actually a bunch of them, including soy salt and pitch-black Kilauea Onyx salt, but at the very top of the list is Amethyst Bamboo, a Korean variety made by filling bamboo cylinders with sea salt, capping them with Loess clay and roasting it nine times in a traditional kiln. It’s a complex process that takes an entire month to complete. Every step is done by hand, so it’s no wonder that the salt can sell for over $100 per jar.

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Institut Le Rosey – The World’s Most Expensive School

Institut Le Rosey is generally considered to be the most expensive school in the world, with the annual tuition per student surpassing $130,000.

Switzerland is home to some of the world’s most expensive and exclusive schools. The European country is home to at least 10 schools with yearly tuition fees of over $75,000, but the most expensive of them all is Institut Le Rosey, an old and reputed boarding school with an ultra-impressive list of alumni. There’s a reason why Le Rosey is known as the “school of kings”. King Juan Carlos of Spain, King Fuad II of Egypt and King Albert II of Belgium were all students here, as were the Shah of Iran, the Aga Khan and Princess Marie-Chantal of Greece, among others. Having educated some of the best-known families in Europe for over a century, it’s no wonder Institut Le Rosey has an annual tuition fee of over $130,000 per student.

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This Company Builds Fantastic Playhouses That Can Cost Up to $400,000

Most people can only dream of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on their dream home, but some are paying the same amounts, if not more, on intricate, fully-furnished playhouses for their kids.

Charmed Playhouses, a family business based in Letherbridge, Canada, claims to build the world’s most fantastic, luxurious and quality playhouses, and looking at some of their creation, we’re inclined to agree. But before you start dreaming about your very own backyard fantasy playhouse, you should know that some of these can cost an arm and a leg. Even though prices start at a respectable $3,500 for a basic playhouse, if you’re looking for something special, the bill can easily go into the tens of thousands, and even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

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This “Ridiculous Butter” Is Flavored with Lobster and Crab, Costs a Whopping $130

‘Ridiculous No.55 Lobster and Crab Butter’ is a decadent handmade butter made by a family company in the UK. It has been voted one of the world’s finest foods by a panel of 355 judges.

If you love food as much as I do, you probably know that there is nothing better than butter. But not all butter is created equal. For example, the ‘Ridiculous No.55 Lobster and Crab Butter’ made by UK-based family company Sublime Butter tastes nothing like the classic dairy product most of us pick up at the supermarket. Not only is it whisked to perfection out of the finest milk fats, but it is mixed in with bits of shellfish (lobster and Devon Crab), as well as caviar, fennel, and lemon to create a truly decadent spread.

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Kynam – The World’s Rarest, Most Expensive Wood

When you think of the rarest, most precious materials on Earth, things like diamonds, platinum, or gold probably pop into your head, but did you know that a special type of wood is actually more expensive than any of those?

Kynam, or “kyara” as it’s known in Japan, is an extremely rare type of agarwood used in the perfume and incense industries for its complex and very strong fragrance. It is the most sought-after type of “oud”, the name used in the Arab peninsula to describe the dark resinous wood produced in the heartwood of the aquilaria tree, in specific circumstances. A single gram of kynam can fetch well over $10,000, making it by far the most expensive wooden on the planet, and also one of the most expensive natural materials.

Essentially, kynam is the best kind of agarwood that money can buy, and it’s important that all types of agarwood are relatively expensive. Also known as aloeswood, eaglewood, or simply oud, agarwood has been an important part of Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Arab and Southeast-Asian cultures for thousands of years. It has always been a precious commodity, but demand for it has increased dramatically in recent years, and with it, the price.

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Would You Pay $21,500 to Run in the World’s First Premium Ultra Marathon?

Described as “the world’s first premium ultra,” the Highland Kings marathon requires participants to pay a £15,499 ($21,500) entrance fee. That makes it the most expensive ultramarathon on Earth.’

Ultramarathons aren’t usually associated with luxury, but Primal Adventure, an outdoor adventure business based in Scotland, is hoping to change that by organizing what many are calling the most expensive ultra marathon in history. The Highland Kings, a four-day camping race covering a distance of 120 miles on the west coast of Scotland, is limited to only 40 participants, each of whom will be required to pay an entrance fee of £15,499. The premium cost will give them access to luxury amenities like butlers, Michelin-star chefs, and hydrotherapy pools, among others.

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