Screen Shot 2014-04-03 at 10.47.37 AM

Here at RocketNews24 we love finding “The Most Expensive (Thing) Ever” and have even been known to see it as something of a challenge. Our eyes light up whenever we see an advert or – more likely, press release – for “World’s Most Expensive (household item that’s usually quite cheap)”.

But brands also love to come up with their own insanely high-end products in the hope of gaining a superlative world title. Whether it’s encrusting something entirely with diamonds, or coating it in gold dust, we can’t help but feel they’re doing it on purpose, just to get our attention (and column inches). Today we bring you seven products from Japan and around the world that you didn’t even know you wanted … until now!

1) World’s most expensive pencil, US$12,800

This limited edition “Perfect Pencil” is from Faber-Castell, one of Germany’s oldest businesses. It’s made from 240-year-old olive wood, has a limited run of 99, and its end-piece and sharpener are made of 18-carat white gold. If that’s not enough, it has three diamonds set in its end!

If you’re feeling cheap(!) though, you could settle for the $250 Perfect Pencil:

Pencil

The $250 version is only made of Pernambuco wood (left) and ebony (right). How tame.

2) Gucci eraser, $130

It’s been called “the world’s most expensive eraser”. Question is, would you ever be able to bring yourself to use it? It’ll get all dirty…

It comes with this (frankly, weird-looking) leather case, too:

Case

3) The Emperor’s new toilet paper, $50 

Official toilet paper suppliers to the Japanese imperial household! 5,000 yen (about $50) will get you three rolls of this product, which is named 羽美翔 (hanebisho, which literally means “feather-beautiful-flight”. We’ll let you figure out what – if anything – that has to do with toilet paper). It’d almost be cheaper to use dollar bills!

Toilet Paper

4) Irreversible plastic umbrella, $50 

Transparent plastic umbrellas are everywhere in Japan, and can usually be picked up for a few hundred yen (a few bucks). This one from WhiteRose, the company that brought the world its first see-through plastic umbrella, will set you back a hefty 5,000 yen ($50)! The makers claim it’s stronger than fibreglass, with patented technology that prevents it from ever blowing inside out. 

5) Soap, $960

Japanese soap company Faiv Kei brings us this “olive juice” (we assume they mean olive oil, not that brine stuff that comes in a jar of olives) soap. Each bar takes a year to make, and the boxes are serial numbered. We’d hope so too, for almost a thousand bucks…

Soap

6) Chocolate toothpaste, $100

The makers of Theodent toothpaste claim that the cocoa bean is a powerful alternative to fluoride. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like something I would’ve told my mother when I was about six years old. Anyway, who cares – it’s toothpaste made of chocolate!

Toothpaste

7) “The Diamond” Nail Clippers, $15,161

Maruto Hasegawa Kosakujo have been making high quality cutlery and metal tools since 1924. Appropriately named “The Diamond”, these jewel-encrusted nail clippers come in at 1,575,000 yen ($15,161). And there you were thinking nail scissors made a weird gift!

Nail

So next time you’re stuck for a gift for that person who has everything, why not give one of these high-end options a try? You’ve got nothing to lose (except, erm, all your money…).

Source: curazy
Top image: Theodent
Images: mostexpensiveallabout (edited by RocketNews24), Rakuten (1, 2), 
Mochizuki seishi, WhiteRose, zaikei, zu bablo, biyodanshi