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Price tags · Puzzle #6 · Monday, October 5

Price tags: the answers

Four questions, each with one true number. Here they are with their answers, how to reason each one out, and where the number comes from. Play today's Price tags.

  1. 1. Cyber Monday: How much did Adobe expect Americans to spend online on Cyber Monday 2026?

    Date
    Monday, Nov. 30

    The answer: over $15 billion. It would be the first single day of US online shopping to top $15 billion.

    Napkin math
    1. 130Mhouseholds in the US
    2. ×$100each online that day

    ≈$13B

    Source: Adobe, Adobe: U.S. Holiday Shopping Season to Hit Record $275.1 Billion Online, Rising 6.7% YoY

  2. 2. A day at Sprouts: How much did one Sprouts Farmers Market store sell on an average day in 2025?

    Photo: Pokemonprime, CC BY 4.0
    Stores
    Grocery stores about half the size of a big supermarket

    The answer: about $51,000. Sprouts had 477 stores in 24 states at the end of 2025, 156 of them in California.

    Napkin math
    1. 1,200shoppers a day
    2. ×$40a cart

    ≈$48k

    Source: Sprouts Farmers Market (SEC Form 10-K), Sprouts Farmers Market Form 10-K for fiscal year 2025

  3. 3. Paul Newman's Rolex Daytona: What did Paul Newman's own Rolex Cosmograph Daytona sell for at Phillips in New York in October 2017?

    Photo: WALLI1912 at German Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 3.0
    What
    A 1968 stainless steel Rolex Daytona, ref. 6239, worn by Paul Newman
    Detail
    Engraved on the back: 'Drive Carefully Me', from his wife Joanne Woodward
    Sold
    Phillips, New York, 2017

    The answer: $17.75 million. The estimate was $1–2 million; part of the proceeds went to the Nell Newman Foundation and Newman's Own Foundation.

    Napkin math: A vintage Daytona can be worth six figures; the actual watch that gave the 'Paul Newman' model its name is one of a kind, so multiply generously.

    Source: Phillips, Rolex Ref. 6239 Cosmograph Daytona ‘Paul Newman’ (Winning Icons, lot 8)

  4. 4. Building a new house: What did it cost builders, on average, to construct a typical new single-family home in 2024, not counting the land?

    Photo: CEphoto, Uwe Aranas, CC BY-SA 3.0
    Average size
    2,647 square feet

    The answer: about $428,000. That's about $162 a square foot, the highest in the history of the National Association of Home Builders' survey.

    Napkin math
    1. 2,500square feet
    2. ×$150a square foot to build

    ≈$375k

    Source: National Association of Home Builders, Cost of Constructing a Home-2024

All of puzzle #6 · The archive